Ready for Battle

THIS WEEK I began reading Radical by David Platt. This book is a soul earthquake. It's very challenging, and I think every Christian in America should read it.

It's a challenge to the idea that God's plan is for us to be increasingly rich and as comfortable as possible. It's a call to align our desires with the desires of God - for helping the poor, going to the ends of the earth to spread the news of the gospel, giving Him glory instead of maintaining what we are used to. It points to the truth that God's will is for the spread of the gospel and for the glory of His name.

This book is reminding me that following Christ is hard. It's a daily battle. It's full of joy, but it's also full of hurdles that we only overcome through faith in God.

Luke 9:23 "Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and come after Me."

Crosses aren't made of gold and strung on fine chains. They aren't nobly perched on steeples. Crosses are heavy, coarse wood and nails. Blood, sweat, and tears. God wants our lives to be full of joy and blessings, but He never intended following Him to be a picnic. It takes devotion to the will of God, a desire to seek and find Him, and a willingness to obey when He calls. It takes a love for the people He loves and a drive to give Him glory at every opportunity. Dying to yourself means not living for yourself, but for Him and to lift Him up. This is something I am working on a lot lately.

The Bible gives us a list of the pieces of spiritual armor we have for our spiritual journey in Ephesians 6. I read this, and the same evening it was read aloud at the church where I was visiting.

Ephesians 6:14-17, "Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, [15] and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; [16] above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all of the fiery darts of the wicked one. [17] And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

I took a minute to think about what each of these things could mean. Why was each of these things assigned to its respective form of protection?

I think truth is like a belt because when you "gird yourself" you are preparing yourself to be determined for a certain task. We should be dedicated to holding fast to the truth that's in Jesus. In Luke 9:62 Jesus responded to someone who wanted to say goodbye to his family before following Him: "But Jesus said to him, 'No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'" Just as no plowing gets done if we don't look ahead, we can't advance the kingdom without wholehearted devotion. Not to what we think is right, but what we find to be true in God's word.

Righteousness is like a breastplate because the righteous are protected by the fact that God is pleased with them. None of us is righteous without the sacrifice Jesus made to trade our sin for His spotlessness, and this righteousness is our being right with God through His grace. The psalmist describes the situation of the righteous: Psalm 1:3 "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever does shall prosper."

Having the preparation of the gospel of peace is like wearing shoes because... well this one's a little funny to think about. It's like shoes because if shoes aren't fastened on reliably, we'll trip, fall, and fail at our task. Without a grasp on the reality of the gospel and a personal experience of how true it all is, how far can we go professing it to be true? John 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." If we don't set our eyes on Jesus and go after Him, we will fail at following Him.

Paul says it's most important that we take the shield of faith. Faith is like a shield because life is full of questions that bring doubts, and temptations that could ensnare us. When we use faith to quench the darts of the wicked one, we aren't disregarding our questions to keep our faith from being challenged. That's not what it means. It means trusting the voice of God over the voice of all others, letting our questions and trials turn into exercises to strengthen our faith and not into reasons to quit on the one thing that matters most. James explains the importance of faith, especially in prayer: James 1:6 "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind." God doesn't want us tossed around. He wants to give us a foundation of trust in His promises - faith.

Salvation is like a helmet because if you don't have it, none of the rest really matters. If you're fully armed everywhere except your head, guess where your enemy is going to attack you. Ephesians 2:8-9 is a good explanation of salvation: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, [9] not of works, lest anyone should boast." Salvation is from God. If we don't have that helmet, whose side are we on in the battle?

Finally, the word of God is the sword of the Spirit because it holds power from the mouth of God. My roommate Sarah was just talking to me about this: All throughout Scripture the word of God is represented by a two-edged sword, and Jesus is the word of God. Hebrews 4:12 declares this power: "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." In Revelation 1 John describes Jesus in his vision as having a two-edged sword in His mouth, representative of this same power held by the word of God. Power we won't want to jump into battle without.

What's important to notice is that without any one of these things, we are not fully equipped. Without the gospel of peace, do we really have the truth? Without the truth, do we really have faith? Recently someone also pointed out to me that there is no armor for the back. Every part of us is protected except the back, implying that we are not meant to retreat once we've chosen to follow Christ.

Being a soldier for Christ doesn't mean the same thing for everyone, except that it always means to do as God calls us to. Not everybody will be in full-time ministry or spent decades overseas, but we've all received the same commandments to spread the gospel, glorify God, and love.

How are we supposed to make this work? We aren't that strong. How do we become the perfect soldier God deserves? The truth is that He won't be surprised at any point when we are tripping and making mistakes. He knows what we are and what we're not. We stumble, and it shows us our need for Him. He will help us up again and make us strong to proceed. But one more thing is needed to take all this armor to war.

This big list is followed by Paul's request that the Ephesians persist in prayer, because calling out to faith in God serves multiple purposes: it gets us closer to our Father's heart, and it yields effective results for those we are praying for. God honors an honest, humble, bold prayer. He isn't into flowery language or half-baked faith. He wants to hear us ask, believing He will keep His promises.

Ephesians 6:18-20, "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for the saints - [19] and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make know n the mystery of the gospel, [20] for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

Notice that following Jesus isn't about what we do, but about who we are in Him. It's about where we put our trust and how true our love is. Good works and heroic acts of faith will follow as a consequence. God wants us to desrie His glory. God is looking for somebody, not who is already strong, but who sees his need for Him to make him strong and believes in His power to do it.