The Shield of Faith

Passage: Ephesians 6:16

The Big Idea

We give the devil too much credit. Hard circumstances come into our lives under God’s loving control, “Father-filtered,” to refine us. Satan’s role is to fire flaming arrows through those circumstances, tempting us to doubt, get bitter and sin. The shield of faith doesn’t stop the circumstance; it quenches the attack. And every time we choose to trust God in a trial, we’re turning that trial into an opportunity and storing up reward that can never be lost.

Quick Review

Above all, Paul says, take up the shield of faith, with which you can put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16).

We’ve been looking at the armor of God, the defense He’s given us to stand against the enemy:

  • The belt of truth: How do we recognize Satan’s lies? Stay in the Bible.
  • The breastplate of righteousness: How do we guard our hearts and emotions? Confess sin and trust what Jesus did on the cross.
  • The boots of the gospel of peace: How do we stand firm and not run in fear? Confidently believe that God loves you, is leading you, and won’t leave you.

But even perfectly equipped, Satan still comes after us. He prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

The Toothless Wildcat

A Christian writer once told of watching a wildcat at a zoo. An attendant walked into the cage carrying nothing but a broom and began sweeping. When he reached the corner where the wildcat lay, he poked it with the broom. The cat hissed and moved to another corner. “You must be a brave man,” the visitor said. “Nope, I ain’t brave.” “Then that cat must be tame.” “Nope, he ain’t tame.” “Then why doesn’t he attack you?” The attendant chuckled: “Mister, he’s old, and he ain’t got no teeth.”

People give the devil far more credit than he deserves.

Something bad happens. The doctor says cancer. The sickness flares again. We get in a car accident or lose a job. Someone treats us unfairly. We fall and break a leg. We lose our money. A spouse is unfaithful and leaves. Dad was never around. Mom was unfair. Teachers were cruel. The boss is a jerk.

And our first thought is, “The devil’s at it again! Why does the devil keep doing this to me?”

We think that because:

  • He hates me. True.
  • He wants me to suffer. True.
  • He was created as a powerful angel. True.
  • He studies me to see how to make me fall. True.
  • So he must be the one causing these circumstances. False!

That gives Satan more power than he has. It’s pretending he has teeth he doesn’t have.

Father-Filtered

The truth is that God is sovereign over everything that comes into your life. That isn’t disrespectful or blasphemous to say. He’s in control of what happens to you.

And He brings a whole lot of good, and some hard things. We just rarely dwell on the good.

  • He sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). Rain is good, and He sends it.
  • The air you breathe is a gift. (Then it gets polluted, and suddenly it’s “the demon of smog”!)
  • Every relationship you have, even the Church, is His gift.

He gives us so much good. But He also brings some tough things.

In Jeremiah 18, God shapes us like a potter, using the events of our lives to mold us into His image. Proverbs says the refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts (Proverbs 17:3). He turns up the heat to bring the impurities to the surface.

God cares too much about you to leave you as you are. He isn’t punishing you.

Think of those home makeover shows where they take a complete dump and turn it into a showpiece. We say, “What vision! What genius!” They saw value in something and invested in it.

God sees value in you, in your soul. So He’s willing to allow pressure and heat in your life so you can be transformed. And He filters it all through His love. Everything that reaches you is “Father-filtered.”

So God allows the circumstances: some good, some tough, some brutal, but all in love. And Satan brings the attack, tempting us to sin through them.

The Flaming Arrows

Here’s what those arrows sound like:

  • You get sick. “Why not doubt God’s love or power? You must have done something wrong. You can’t rejoice. You can’t love God.”
  • You lose your job. “God doesn’t care about your needs. Be upset with Him. Feel betrayed. You’re not important enough to Him. He won’t take care of you.”
  • Your boss is unfair. “Hold on to that anger and bitterness. Slack off. Complain.”
  • Your spouse is unfaithful. “Be cruel back so they know how much they hurt you. An eye for an eye. Make them pay. You can’t love them.”
  • A friend forgets you and hurts your feelings. “Save that up and use it later to get your way.”
  • Someone you love dies. Satan screams, “God is cruel! God is unfair! You can’t trust Him!” He wants your grief to turn into anger and stop your trust. He wants grief to control you and become more important than your relationship with God, so you keep repeating, “I don’t deserve this.”

I picture Satan like the Emperor in Star Wars, taunting Luke: “Your friends will die. Good, I can feel your anger. Strike me down with all your hatred, and your journey to the dark side will be complete!”

Faith Quenches the Attack

So:

  • God allows the circumstance.
  • Satan fires the attack, tempting us to sin.
  • Faith quenches the attack, so we’re left with the circumstance, minus the sin.

The shield of faith doesn’t block the circumstance. It blocks the temptation to sin.

  • You get sick. Faith says, “I’ll rejoice and pray for healing, as God told me to. He promised to be with me.”
  • You lose your job. Faith says, “My God cares for me and will provide for my needs. That’s His promise. I’ll keep praying and watching how He provides, even if it isn’t how I’d want or expect.”
  • Your boss is mean. Faith says, “I’ll love and serve him anyway.”
  • Your spouse treats you terribly. Faith responds with love and patience. (And faith also seeks help and safety when there’s abuse or danger. Loving someone never requires staying in harm’s way.)
  • Someone dies. Faith thanks God for the time you had, and rejoices in the hope of heaven. Death isn’t the end. You still grieve, but not in anger and not without hope. Paul says we don’t grieve like those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Your circumstances aren’t the enemy. Sin is the enemy.

God never says, “Try not to have anyone die,” or, “Try not to get sick,” or, “Try to avoid hard circumstances.” These things will happen. That’s the world we live in.

But we’re overcomers. Trials don’t define us.

  • She can be “the person who’s always sick,” or the person who trusts God through all her sickness.
  • He can be “the guy who always has bad things happen” and is bitter about it, or the humble example of patience and hope who shows others how to trust God.

John says everyone born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith (1 John 5:4).

You won’t be judged by how many bad things happened to you, but by how you responded: in faith, or in sin.

Trials Are Opportunities (Job 1-2)

Trials are really opportunities, for you and for God. All things work together for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28). But how?

Look at Job. Satan was looking for ways to hurt and destroy, and even to wound God. He said, “Stretch out Your hand and touch all he has, and he’ll curse You to Your face!” (Job 1:11). That was the goal: sin.

But Satan played right into God’s hand. God allowed the trial to prove Job. He wasn’t worried about how Job would respond. He already saw Job’s faith. But He wanted Satan, the world and the angels to see it. He wanted to show off what He’d already done in Job’s heart.

Our trials are opportunities to see God’s faithfulness when we trust Him.

Then Satan said, “Touch his bone and his flesh, and he’ll curse You!” (Job 2:5). Different trial, same result. Job had faith. The attack was neutralized.

“But Job still got hurt. He still suffered!” Right. But he didn’t sin! The attack was aimed at getting him to sin. And he’ll be rewarded for his faith, for choosing to honor the Lord. No one can ever take that away. He was storing up treasure in heaven. You can’t take your retirement account to heaven, but you can honor the Lord in your trials by faith.

It’s no accident that God linked a shield and a reward when He spoke to Abraham, the father of faith: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:1).

Faith in God not only neutralizes the attack; it brings reward. How we respond to trials affects our reward in heaven. So the more trials we face, the more opportunities we have!

“But I don’t want these opportunities. I want an easy life. I want my joy now.”

The Buried Talent (Matthew 25:14-30)

Remember the parable of the talents. The master entrusted his servants with different amounts. Two invested and doubled what they had, and heard, “Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master.” (Then came their joy!) But the third said, “I knew you were a hard man. I was afraid, so I buried your talent in the ground.” In effect: “I didn’t sign up for this. I wanted a comfortable life. I was afraid to suffer. The little suffering I faced, I buried. I responded in sin, and it was wasted.” The master called him wicked and lazy.

If you want the easy life, you can mostly have it. Satan won’t pay much attention to someone with no faith. But you’ll be sorry.

The enemy’s flaming arrows will lead you into sin and burn up your rewards, because you didn’t take up the shield of faith. You chose not to, because you didn’t believe it was real or reliable. You had a limited number of opportunities, and you wasted them.

Jesus says He is coming soon, and His reward is with Him, to repay everyone for what they have done (Revelation 22:12).

What you do matters. Every time you say, “I’m going to trust the Lord,” you’re gaining rewards that will never be lost. We have no idea how much our lives matter.

When people asked Jesus, “What shall we do to do the works of God?” He answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:28-29).

Satan wants to destroy your rewards and make every circumstance of your life a waste. How do you stop that? Faith. Believe that every situation you find yourself in is an opportunity to glorify God by trusting Him. That kind of faith will extinguish every flaming arrow of the enemy.

Martha Snell Nicholson’s well-known poem “The Judgment Seat of Christ” imagines a believer standing before Jesus and seeing the life that might have been had he yielded to Him: the places he blocked and resisted Him, the riches he could have had, standing there poor, “stripped of all but His grace.” The poem ends not in despair but in surrender, yielding the years that remain into the Lord’s hands to be shaped to His pattern.

That’s the right response: “Lord, the years I have left, I give to You. Take me, make me, mold me.”

Grace Takeaway

Your trials are Father-filtered, and the devil has no teeth; his only power is the flaming arrow of temptation aimed through your circumstances. Faith doesn’t erase the hard thing, but it quenches the lie that tempts you to doubt, get bitter or sin. Every time you choose to trust God in the fire, you turn a trial into treasure. Take up the shield. He is your shield and your exceedingly great reward.

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