by Terry W. Benton<\/p>\n
In all the armor of God, there is a piece of protection called “the shield of faith<\/em>” with which “you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one<\/em>” (Ephesians 6:15). That is a powerful thing to have and use. Another way of saying that is, “nothing Satan tries to throw at you is more powerful than the shield of faith that God has given you.”<\/p>\n Now, here is the thing. If you lay down your faith shield every time a problem comes along, then Satan wins every time. He gets to you, discourages, disheartens, and defeats you. You have to see what is coming and hold the shield of faith up; when you do, you are never defeated. You learn the value of lifting the shield into place. The shield is composed of faith in God, faith that He is with you and that He is greater than all the evil forces. Don’t lay the shield aside when problems come at you. That is the very time to pick it up and use it.<\/p>\n Consider the times David picked up the shield of faith to protect him from the many dangers and attacks of evil people with evil motives. We can also think of when he put his shield aside in the Bathsheba and Uriah incident. It does not work when you put it aside and forget it. It works when you put your faith shield in front of you, and we have to be ready to use it before the darts of temptation and trial hit us. Are you daily practicing to skillfully lift the shield of faith so that you are no easy target? Listen to David in his moments of using the shield!<\/p>\n The difference between us and David may come down to which one of us actually picked up the shield of faith and used it when the fiery dart was slung toward us. Did we use the shield? We are not promised a problem-free life here. We are given powerful armor to deal with whatever comes at us. Learn quickly to use the shield. Pick it up and face your new day with confidence that this shield will work for you today and every day you train yourself to use it!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry W. Benton In all the armor of God, there is a piece of protection called “the shield of faith” with which “you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:15). That is a powerful thing to have and use. Another way of saying that is, “nothing Satan tries to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,186],"class_list":["post-66930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith","tag-protection"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32925,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-armor-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":66930,"position":0},"title":"The Armor of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ephesians 6:10-18 Rome was the mighty governing power in the days the New Testament was written. Its strength was in its military, which constantly was on guard Josephus, a Jewish historian, observed that Roman soldiers always carried their weapons with them, even in times of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/RomanBelt.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47194,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/metaphors-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":66930,"position":1},"title":"Metaphors for God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Psalms 18:1-19 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Figures of speech have long been used in communicating ideas. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Prior to the modern usage of font styles, the content of the text itself called the reader\u2019s attention to what was important. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Figures of speech grabs your attention because they depart from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38555,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-reality-of-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":66930,"position":2},"title":"The Reality of Satan","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"Satan\" is a descriptive term that means \"adversary.\" \"Devil\" means \"slanderer.\" These terms aptly describe the being who is known as the enemy of God and His people. The first encounter with the devil is seen in Genesis 3, where the creature here slandered God's severity by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36253,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/firearms-and-teaching-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":66930,"position":3},"title":"Firearms and Teaching Children","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford In 2010 and 2011, I became the father of two extremely inquisitive children. In 2019, I also became the owner of a firearm. Naturally, I gave some thought to how these two areas of my life should interact. Should I keep my gun locked away from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/toy-gun-300x201.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37247,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/everywhere-spoken-against\/","url_meta":{"origin":66930,"position":4},"title":"Everywhere Spoken Against","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffery Kingry If you are doing anything right, you should have caught Satan's attention by now (Ref. Job 1:6). One of our great blessings is that while our adversary is powerful, he is\u00a0not\u00a0God. Satan's powers are intimidating enough as it is (Matthew 4). It appears that the deceiver goes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20955,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/soldiers-of-christ-arise-and-put-your-armor-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":66930,"position":5},"title":"Soldiers of Christ Arise and Put Your Armor On","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Fancher Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,<\/em>
\nMy glory and the One who lifts up my head.<\/em>
\nI cried to the Lord with my voice,<\/em>
\nAnd He heard me from His holy hill<\/em>” (Psalms 3:3-4).\n“For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous;<\/em>
\nWith favor You will surround him as with a shield<\/em>” (Psalms 5:12).\n“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;<\/em>
\nMy God, my strength, in whom I will trust;<\/em>
\nMy shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.<\/em>
\nI will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;<\/em>
\nSo shall I be saved from my enemies<\/em>” (Psalms 18:2-3).\n“As for God, His way is perfect;<\/em>
\nThe word of the Lord is proven;<\/em>
\nHe is a shield to all who trust in Him<\/em>” (Psalms 18:30).<\/blockquote>\n