The Shield of Faith

In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.

-Ephesians 6:16

With our faith, we can block the flaming arrows of the enemy, like a shield. Paul was probably thinking about a Roman shield, kind of like this one:

Maybe. The Roman’s shields were made out of wood, but they were covered in leather so they wouldn’t catch on fire, which was a big part of their battles. (Thank you, Pastor Tim from Wayside!)

When we think of shields, we normally think of something more like this:

Sorry, I couldn’t help it… But, although this shield would definitely stand up pretty good to some flaming arrows (now there’s an idea, Marvel!), it doesn’t provide quite as much full-body protection. See what I mean?

The stronger your faith is, the better your shield will be, and the better you’ll be able to guard yourself against the devil’s flaming arrows of temptation. Which just might be mentioned in the next post.

(I can’t help it… which shield would you rather have? Why?)

Mysterious Helper

Anna took a deep breath of clean fall air as she strolled along the sidewalk. The traffic whizzed past to her left. Suddenly, Anna was thrown to the ground as someone shoved her off the sidewalk. She caught a glimpse of a tall lean figure before a delivery truck hurtled onto the sidewalk where she’d been walking. Anna instinctively leaped to her feet and jumped backwards. The truck hit a nearby tree with a loud crunch.

Anna looked around for the person who had moved her out of the oncoming truck’s path, but she didn’t see anyone. How weird, she thought.

The delivery truck’s driver got out of the car hurriedly and rushed over to Anna. “Are you okay?” he asked frantically.

“I’m fine,” Anna assured him.

The police arrived soon after to take a report of the crash, and Anna was allowed to leave. She continued on her way until she reached her friend Lucy’s house.

“Hi, Anna,” Lucy welcomed Anna in cheerfully. Anna immediately poured out her story to her friend, including her mysterious helper.

Lucy’s jaw dropped. “Do you know what time the crash happened?”

“Just after two,” Anna told her. She looked at her friend curiously.

Lucy was amazed. “Just before two, I felt God telling me to pray for your protection, and I did!”