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Excerpted from Chapter 13 of Boot Camp: Equipping Men with Integrity for Spiritual Warfare:

The Spirit’s instructions concerning the armor of God conclude with the expectation that disciples of Christ would be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Eph 6.18). What better way to reinforce heaven’s intentions in our minds and dedicate ourselves to the goal of serving as faithful soldiers than to ask our Father’s help and blessing as we reflect on each piece of armor?

Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your sovereign rule extend into our hearts and lives. May your will be done in us and through us as it is in heaven. We thank you, Father, for the strength of your might that has been made available to us. We are unworthy even to address you as our Father. We have turned our backs on you in the past. We have rejected the message of your Messiah. But you have not forgotten or given up on us. Even when we were your enemies, you worked to provide a plan for our redemption. We thank you for the blessed privilege of calling on you as redeemed sons.

Blessed Father, we seek your help and blessing as we do our best to recognize the present conflict. Help us to realize the stakes. Grant us the wisdom to feel the weight of the struggle. Guide us in acknowledging our desperate need for your power and patience in our lives. Direct us as we strive to remember who we have been called to struggle against. Guard us from selfish deception that would tempt us to turn unnecessarily on other image-bearers. Lead us to clarity and focus so that you and you alone are glorified in all of our efforts.

Holy Father, we thank you for the belt of truth. We praise you as the Author of reality and the Rock of faithfulness. Send forth your light into our lives. Help us to acknowledge and joyfully respond to your direction. Use whatever you must to guide us to your holy mountain, to the pleasure of your presence. We pray for sanctification through your word and for strength as we strive to be men of truth in your service. Help us to wrap integrity around every aspect of our lives and allow your truth to bind every element of our existence together. We pray that you would help us to stay dressed for holy action, with minds prepared and hearts that are eagerly awaiting the return of your Son.

Righteous Father, we thank you for the breastplate of righteousness. We ask for your guidance as we wage war against sin in our mortal bodies. Help us to cultivate a holy hatred for abusing our members as instruments of unrighteousness. Lead us and be patient with us as we dedicate ourselves as soldiers who have been brought from death to life. Help us to discern your will, delight in your leading, and live as clear representations of your expectations. Guide us as we seek to clothe ourselves with humility. Mold us, Father, to your glory. Purge from our lives whatever you must by whatever means is necessary so that we might glorify you in honesty, uprightness, and integrity.

Merciful Father, we thank you for the shoes of readiness given by the gospel of peace. We magnify you as the great peacemaker in all of history. We praise you for the gift of your Son through whom we can come boldly to the throne of your grace. Help us, Father, to appreciate our freedom. May we avoid using it as an opportunity for the flesh. Guide us that we might be always ready for every good work. Shape us into peacemakers and proclaimers of your good news. Use us in the cause of overcoming evil with good.

Almighty Father, we thank you for the shield of faith. We glorify you for your word which continues to serve as the foundation of our faith. Help us to cling to the promise of victory in the faith that overcomes the world. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Guard us as we endure the assaults of the evil one. Establish us in steadfastness of faith. In all circumstances, empower us to carry the shield of absolute trust.

Gracious Father, we thank you for the helmet of salvation. We exalt you for your amazing grace. We praise you for the assurance of our relationship with you. We ask for your help as we fight against the urges to submit once again to our former yokes of slavery. Preserve us, Father, deliver us with your mighty right hand. Fulfill your purposes for us and in us. Do not forsake the work of your hands. May your steadfast love, O Lord, endure forever.

Finally, Most High Father, we thank you for the sword of the Spirit, the revelation of your mind and will. May we always appreciate your providence which has made your revelation so freely available. We stand in awe of its living power. Do whatever you must to keep us open to its teaching, sensitive to its reproof, honest with its correction, and receptive of its instructions so that we might be trained in righteousness. Bless our efforts to present ourselves to you as men approved, workers who do not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the sword of your Spirit.

We will follow you, Father, wherever you lead. Whom have we in heaven but you? There is nothing and no one on earth that we desire more than you. Our bodies and our hearts may fail, but you are the strength of our hearts and our refuge forever.

With all our hearts, souls, and minds, we pledge our allegiance to your Son and our King. Come, Lord Jesus! It is through him that we pray.

Amen.

(Boot Camp: Equipping Men with Integrity for Spiritual Warfare, pg. 229-231)

Other posts in this series on the armor of God:

Excerpted from Chapter 13 of Boot Camp: Equipping Men with Integrity for Spiritual Warfare:

“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Eph 6.16). There were two types of Roman shields in the ancient world. One was small and round, designed especially for hand-to-hand combat. The other was much larger, measuring four by two and a half feet, and described in terms more similar to a “door” than a shield. The Spirit commissions the soldier of the cross to take up this latter shield in the defense of his soul.

This shield is solid, designed to protect the whole body. Usually made of light wood, such shields were frequently lined with brass and covered with several folds of thick leather. They could be drenched with water so that as enemy arrows dipped in pitch and set on fire collided with them, the points were blunted and the flames were extinguished. An ancient soldier needed only to kneel down and hold his shield above him, and he would be protected from the flaming barrages of the opposition.

The Spirit tells us that the Christian’s shield is forged in the fires of faith. If truth is rock-solid, undeniable fact as revealed by the Creator, faith is unshakeable trust in the Revealer and his revelation. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10.17). God’s assurances of things hoped for form our shields. The conviction of things not seen can quench the hottest flames (Heb 11.1).

From a distance we’ve studied many of the evil one’s “flaming darts”—temptations to operate in selfishness, to give in to sexual immorality, idolatry, jealousy, or anger, to lose control of our tongues or to hide behind the masks of hypocrisy. Our Adversary is intent upon our destruction. His own defeat is already certain, but he will use whatever he can to cause fear in our hearts, doubt in our minds, worry during our nights, and rebellion throughout our days. If he can drag us down to the pits of destruction along with him, he will.

But even when this great red dragon blows the hottest fire of his fiercest wrath in our direction, as we stand firm behind the shield of our faith, we have nothing to fear, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5.4-5).

Temptations will continue to come. Trials will continue to arise. Just because you hold the shield of faith in your hands does not mean that the dragon will give up in his efforts. If anything, his attention is enhanced and his hatred is all the more incensed by those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Like a prowling, roaring lion he continues to seek those whom he can devour. But you can “resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Pet 5.8-9).

Remember, the devil cannot force you to lay down the shield of your faith. As long as a soldier has his shield, he feels secure. As long as a Christian has his faith, he will overcome. God will deliver him, defend him, vindicate him, provide for him, and ultimately reward him for his faithfulness. But as soon as you choose to lay your shield down, you invite your own devouring.

Don’t lay it down! “In all circumstances”—at home, at work, at school, at play, in busyness and in rest, in times of rejoicing and in times of sorrow—hold on to the shield of your faith. You will find nothing else that can extinguish the Evil One’s flaming arrows.

(Boot Camp: Equipping Men with Integrity for Spiritual Warfare, pg. 225-226)

Other posts in this series on the armor of God:

Archives For shield of faith

Arming Ourselves in Prayer

The Shield of Faith

Roman Soldier Pics