Praying the Full Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10-17

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Lord,
I get up this morning knowing full well that you have called me to tasks and encounters that the enemy would like to shut down. Because of that I put on the full armor that you have given me in order to accomplish your will this morning.

I buckle around me the belt of truth, because without truth there is no discernment of right and wrong. Only truth will make everything else hang together. Bless you Jesus that you are Truth. And that with you surrounding me today everything will be connected and in the right place for every step I take, every conversation that I participate in, every group I am around and every task you will give me to perform today.

I take up the breastplate of righteousness. Not my own righteousness, because all my acts and intentions are like “filthy rags”. Thank you Jesus that you are my righteousness. You are perfect and no weapon can penetrate you. Thank you that you protect my heart and my soul and all my emotions with your perfection.

Make my feet ready to go where ever you send me with the good news. Allow the joy of the news of your love be ever on my lips, and as the constant motivator for all I do.

Give me the shield of faith because the enemy will shoot arrows at me on my way. Help my faith to grow stronger, because you are it’s author and perfecter. I long to have perfect faith.

Finally keep me steady and certain as the helmet of salvation rests on my head. Protect my mind from the evil one and all his schemes to attack me in my thoughts.

Allow me to become the expert swordsman you created me to be. Help me to imitate Jesus as I wield your word to resist the devil that he may flee from me.

Bless you Jesus that you are able to keep me from falling, and that you go with me throughout my day.

2 Peter 1:10 – Diligence in Intimacy with Jesus

Here’s a link to a great blog about being diligent in our relationship with Jesus as the key to “working out our salvation with fear and trembling”. (Philippians 2:12)

Intimacy as the Way to Salvation

Unapologetically recommended by the author’s mother.

2 Peter 1:10 – Diligence

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

Guess what? What I wrote yesterday isn’t always that easy to do. Making “certain about His calling and choosing” isn’t easy. It takes diligence. The dictionary says that to be diligent is to be “constant in effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doing anything”.

If I want to walk with Jesus through life without stumbling, I need to be diligent (constant in effort, attentive and persistent) to be certain of his calling and choosing me. Hmmm…sounds a lot like Ephesians 6 where Paul tells us to “stand firm” three times in four verses.

The confidence born of certainty makes the holding on in adversity, trial and testing simply a matter of time until the purposes of God get worked out. My own personal story bears this out. When life is painful and hard, I look back to the assurance that God chose me and that what I am doing is what He called me to do. Then I stand firm with the shield of faith (Hebrews 11:1 – now faith is the assurance/certainty of things hoped for and the conviction/certainty of things not seen) and extinguish all the flaming arrows (doubts and fear) of the evil one.

Which all leads back to where this whole discovery of 2 Peter 1:10 began. The armor of God. “now put on the helmet of salvation”. What is the thing that protects my mind and my thoughts about myself and about my life? The confidence of my salvation. The confidence that the God of the Universe not only knows me but chose me despite myself. And the confidence that He and His purposes for my life have been ordained. These I diligently seek and He promises that when I seek Him with my whole heart, I will find Him.

2 Peter 1:10 – You are Called. You are Chosen

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

So what is it that Peter tells us will make us sturdy on our feet in the face of adversity?

Being certain of His calling on our lives and that He has chosen us.

When I know that God chose me, I am humbled under his mercy, but honored all at the same time. How could the God that created EVERYTHING want to be in relationship with me? How could He in all His perfection ever stoop to talk to me, to use me for his purposes. It makes my heart yearn for Him all the more. As David said in Psalm 139: “such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high. How can I attain it?” But they are truth. If you are in need of knowing that God chose you, there are many scriptures and we would love to help you.

But you also need to know that God doesn’t just choose you and the story ends with “happily ever after” at that point. If He chose you, He also called you. There is a destiny over every life. There is a God-breathed calling for which you were created.

Knowledge of these two things are the deciding factors in whether or not we stumble.

KNOW YOU ARE CHOSEN. KNOW YOU ARE CALLED AND TO WHAT YOU ARE CALLED!

2 Peter 1:10 – 100% Certainty

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

Growing up, I think I probably asked Jesus into my heart everytime the offer was made. Hell is a scary thought to a kid, and I don’t care how strong a home you grow up in, the thought is there. If you are honest with yourself, and not in a place where religious pride takes hold of you, you’ve questioned your salvation too. Part of that is the enemy, but part of that is God teaching us too. Our faith must be our own. We cannot stand on a shaky foundation and expect to weather the storms of life. I am so thankful for teachers and pastors who have placed my feet on solid ground and I hope that this verse will help you if you are wavering.

One of the first things to come to my mind when I read this passage is that we can be 100% certain of never stumbling. “You will never stumble.” There are many, many passages through out scripture about stumbling. None of them have good connotations. There are implications of failure in battle, discipline of the LORD and weakness and exhaustion.

Perhaps the worst kind of stumbling would be what Jesus warns us against in Matthew 24, where it says that the enemy would try to mislead believers. satan is the master of deception and lies. his lies to us are that we are not children of God, and that we have no security or hope for the future. Matthew’s verse talks about the last days, but I see this lie trying to make its way into believers on a daily basis.

But this verse specifically says that we will never stumble. Pretty good promise.

There’s hope…more tomorrow.

Introduction to this week…

I’ve been captivated by 2 Peter 1:10 on several different levels which I will attempt to unravel into thoughts here this week.

I orginally came to this verse during one of the sermons on spiritual armor. Sitting in second service (after I’ve been in first service too) I have time to let my brain begin to cross reference and apply the message to my own life. (not a bad practice if you’ve got the time to attend the same service twice) As I was thinking forward to future pieces of armor, I began to think about the helmet of salvation and how, when I pray for that I ask God to protect the certainty of my salvation. Enter www.biblegateway.com and a search for the word “certain” in the NASB translation of the Bible.

Here’s what I found:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble

I’ll give you a day to meditate on that one and then see if your thoughts are similar to mine.