The Armor of God
by Andy Soyars
"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." (Ephesians 6:11).
Now at first glance, this seems like a simple instruction...put on the full armor of God. But when you really stop to think about this thing for a minute, it actually reveals a lot more than it says.
First of all, assuming that you're a child of God, you don't have to go buy your armor or make your own, you already have it somewhere. It's given to you as a gift when you accept Jesus as your Savior. If you're not a child of God, you have no armor, nor can you obtain it on your own.
Secondly, and pay very close attention to this: just because you may have your armor, that doesn't mean you're wearing it! If you were already wearing it, Paul wouldn't be telling you to put it on! You have the armor of God in your possession, but you have the choice of whether to wear it or not. You can wear it today and take it off tomorrow. You can wake up and leave it in the corner this morning, and come back for it after lunch, if you wish. It's not a part of your body. It's a part of your attire...just like your underwear and socks. Wear 'em or don't. It's your choice. A good many of us keep our armor all shined up in the corner, stacked nicely and neatly on top of our Bibles...which is why we've become so competent at getting our (censored) kicked! We have no protection! Instead we choose to use it as a dust cover for the instruction manual while we run around naked getting whupped up on! This is the category that most of us fall into, I would suspect. 
Why are we to put on the armor? "...so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." Now these two ideas, putting on your armor and standing against the devil's schemes, were so important to Paul that he mentioned them again just two verses later...just in case you missed them the first time. "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." (Ephesians 6:13).
Put on the armor! It's yours and it's for your benefit, so put it on, for crying out loud! A lot of us don't even know we have it, but we do. A lot of us that know we have it don't bother to wear it, so it does us no good. It's not heavy like the armor of the medieval knights. We don't need help slipping it over our shoulders and buckling it in the back. All we have to do is pick it up and put it on! It's for your own protection! "...so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
So you can stand against the devil's schemes. So that when
the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.
So that after you have done everything you can do, you can
still stand. You can keep getting knocked on your kiester all
day long if you like...day after day, week after week and month after month. But you don't have to. You can stand. If
you want to. If you choose to wear your armor.
Andy has been a Bible student for years, with an often unique take on God's word! Feel free to check out his new video on youtube! Feel free to stop by his free website for some great ways to help you through today! Stop by imonlywood.com today!
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