In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one…Ephesians 6:16 (ESV, emphasis added)
In these confusing, chaotic, threat-laden and trouble-filled times, we, as followers of Jesus Christ, of all people, should be the ones who are most consistently filled with joy, most optimistic, most content, most calm, most peace-filled, most trusting, and most confident.
When we are, then we will see 1 Peter 3:13-17 (emphasis added) at work in our lives:
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Without a doubt, I can say I do not know of a single person who does not struggle, at least to some degree, with anxiety, worry, fretting, and fear. These are the most common, the most frequent and oftentimes the only fiery darts our spiritual enemy needs to discourage and debilitate us.
There is not a single sphere of life where these four darts are not prevalent. Among the Big Three facets of life—relationships, health, and finances—there are plenty of opportunities for these darts to be launched and find their way into the target—any vulnerabilities not covered with faith—for their malice.
I struggled for years, for decades even, with what I call the “burn” of anxiety—the stomach acid, the hot/cold flashes, the nausea, the internal vibration, the wildly negative imagination, and the outright dread rooted in fear. What I have learned is that these “burn” elements are permeated with the odor, the taste, and the feel of hell itself! This is the environment in which our enemy, the devil and his minions, are most comfortable.
As we are feeling and perceiving during these unprecedented times, the Lord seems to have withdrawn certain protections and is allowing His enemy and ours, Satan, the world, and the flesh (the unsaved) to have greater liberty for their fears, anger, and malice. Our world has rapidly become uglier in so many ways.
For those of you who have seen The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, the representation of the land of Mordor makes this precise point. It has been turned into a wasteland denuded by evil. That is what evil does—it destroys.
This is similar to what I witnessed in Libya when I was there in August 2013. My friend, Ghanem, took me to Libya with him to meet his family, and so that I could experience Libya firsthand. After 40 years of despotic rule by a godless, evil man, I saw with my own eyes the destruction associated with devilish glee. Everywhere beauty formerly existed, there was now sand or concrete. If it was green and lush, but Gaddafi ruined it with malicious intent. Ugly was his version of beauty. That is true of Satan as well.
I say all this to paint a picture of the source, the root of anxiety, worry, fretting, and fear. They are never of Heaven, of God; they are in every instance hellish and satanic. That is why the Apostle Paul made such a powerful statement when he said that the shield of faith can extinguish all the fiery darts.
However, true faith is from a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not just a willful determination.
Galatians 2:20b (KJV) says, “…and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” It is His faith flowing from the One who lives in me that is my faith. His victory over every sin has constructed, developed, and enables my shield of faith to actively quench the fiery darts. It is a living shield, not an inanimate object.
I had a dream one time where I was standing shoulder to shoulder with others and all of us were dressed in the full armor of Christ described in Ephesians chapter 6. I remember distinctly that while the enemy was amassed in front of us, spewing out hate, anger, fear, and bile, our Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, sat calmly upon His horse at the head of our ranks. What was even more amazing is that from Him flowed His life that empowered our personal armor to pulsate with vibrancy and power. And even more wonderful, above the noise and din of the horrific enemy we faced, all of us could hear, even though it was spoken very calmly and quietly, our Lord-Captain saying, “Stand.” This so resonated with the Lord’s instructions through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:11, 13‐14, where the command to “stand” is repeated four times: stand, stand, stand, stand!
Nowhere in this battle passage does it say to advance, or to retreat, or to plan, or to strategize.
No, the command is to stand. Undoubtedly, the desire of God is for us to stand in His truth, stand in His power, stand in His calmness, and stand in His faithfulness. The one thing our enemy cannot tolerate is a believer who stands firmly upon the Rock of his salvation (Psalm 18:2) no matter what assails them. Our God, who is Love, dispels fear—anti‐love—through the power of His blood and resurrection. The moment Love moves, the ever‐aching head of our enemy feels the ever‐crushing heel of our Lord and is thereby constantly reminded that he is a defeated foe—and time is running out for him.
In fact, even in standing we are also participating in the victory of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14): “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”
But, my friends, it is impossible to stand if you do not have your heart, your eyes, your thoughts fixed (permanently focused upon without wavering) upon the Lord. And please understand this, NOT fixing your heart, eyes, and thoughts on the Lord is disobedience—these are not suggestions, they are commands and expected practices of His disciples:
[The righteous person] shall not be afraid of evil tidings [news, reports]: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord (Psalm 112:7 KJV).
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV).
Therefore, holy brothers [and sisters], who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest whom we confess (Hebrews 3:1 NIV).
I have a dear friend who is dealing with intense attacks of anxiety. As he and I have talked, I am blessed to be able to help him because I have learned (and will continue to learn throughout the rest of my life) three eternal truths:
1. We are commanded not to be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6‐7) and that means even the “good” stuff as well: Kingdom business, Gospel declaration, spiritual transformation, pure obedience, and many other biblical realities. The command uses the word “anything” quite plainly and quite unmistakably. Somehow, we have allowed ourselves to be deceived into believing that these verses only refer to anxiety about needs, or negative things, or sin issues, or anything else that worries us, other than God-things. And yet the word “anything” is so all‐inclusive that we need to go to the Lord and ask His forgiveness for not believing the absoluteness of His chosen revelation.
2. Nothing can touch me—anything that has the potential to stimulate anxiety, worry, fret, or fear—unless it has been granted the ability to do so by God Himself. This is the plain teaching of Job chapters 1 and 2. Satan himself had to obtain permission to do harm to Job. And even then, God set firm boundaries. Since we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6), Christ Himself must either allow or do whatever touches us. That is why we are commanded in Proverbs 3:5 to trust the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not upon our own understanding. Because we are first and foremost spiritual beings, one with Christ and in Christ, and Him in us (Colossians 1:27), this is and always will be the dominating reality of our existence. The temporal realities we deal with are transitory by nature and will not last (1 Peter 1:7 and James 1:2‐4). The assurances of Romans 8:28‐29 are never more powerfully applicable than in this setting.
3. I cannot, I must not lean upon my own strength to stand, to be without anxiety, worry, fretting or fear, to try to be patient, to try to overcome, to do anything. Instead, I must ruthlessly believe that “without [Jesus] I can do nothing” (John 15:5b), and that the Lord wants me to embrace my weaknesses (1 Corinthians 12:9‐10) so that Christ’s strength may rest upon me. God wants to be my strength, not simply someone who works to make me stronger. God does not transform our weakness into strength; rather, through our weaknesses, He transforms our hearts so that through faith we will stand fully and exclusively in Him, in His strength, in His faith, in His perfection, in His power…in Him alone!
Oh, my dear brothers and sisters, Jesus did not live, die, and live again to make us better and stronger people. No! He came so that He might be our Life utterly and completely, inexhaustibly, without limit or measure! This is why He Himself so passionately desired to live in us (John 17:26). He finished the work so that He then can live that completed work through us, if for no other reason than this: He already walked and talked and lived all the requirements of God to perfection! He knows what He is doing! He can, will, and desires to live His life in us and through us!
Are anxiety, worry, fretting, and fear real? Absolutely! Can they do us harm? Certainly! But these sins are just that—sin. They are the natural DNA of our flesh, the world, and Satan. But they only harm us if we allow them. In order for the shield of faith to be even more effectively used to protect us from eternal harm, it must be tried and tested. So the paradox is this: that which we wield to defend us (the shield of faith) is also that which in the defending is being perfected.
Our faith must be attacked in order for it to grow. The fiery darts must and will come. It is faith that quenches them, that keeps them from getting through to our hearts and minds—our vitals, our souls.
Consequently, a weak faith will be attacked in order to make it stronger. The shield of faith does not become more powerful in the closet. No, we are in a constant state of battle and every moment of our lives the shield of faith, as well as all the other pieces of our armor, are to be worn and used, and all so we can simply stand our ground. Our Almighty God allows the enemy to attack our faith even though our enemy desires our destruction. But God knows and sets the limits to the attacks (1 Corinthians 10:13) so that we will be more reliant upon Christ, so that we can be like Christ in His humility, His dependence upon the Father, and His absolute submission to the will of the Father—no matter what!
My friends, it is certainly okay to be aware of what is going on in the world. In fact, it is a good thing to spend time with the Lord bringing the events of our times to Him in prayer and allowing Him to show us what He is doing through all these things.
But it is not okay to spend more time watching and listening to media coverage, social media posts, and participating in fear-permeated and negative conversations than we spend in God’s Word and in conversation with Him.
No, we are explicitly commanded to think about “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…” (Philippians 4:8). And obsessing—yes, I mean watching, listening, and reading the unspiritual garbage that flows from our devices, televisions, radios, and newspapers—is a direct violation…SIN…for us who are believers.
Awareness, certainly. Prayerful intercession with the little we know—absolutely! But we do not get our real news from the world. We get it from the Lord through His word, prayer, and quiet time spent with Him.
Brothers and sisters, let’s not give Satan a foothold by allowing the sun to go down upon our anger, our fear, or our “unsovereign” thinking.
“Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding” (Proverbs 3:5 AMP). Let’s take this to heart and practice it ruthlessly, constantly, and triumphantly!
