In a battle, in a war, it's common in
biblical days that the Roman soldier would have a shield. This shield is to
block, thwart, the tools that the enemy is using, in that case arrows, from hitting
the soldier. We have a shield that is designed to block what Satan is shooting
at us from hitting us. We don't get to stop what he shoots. We don't get to stop
where he aims. We do get to stop it reaching its desired goal. And how do we
do that? Well this shield is called the shield of faith. You know, the Roman
soldier's shield was so big that the whole body of the Roman soldier could
hide behind it. Well, God has given us a shield so worthy, so big, that it can
cover all of your life. It's called the fiery darts of Satan. These are arrows
that have been dipped in oil and set aflame, so they're not just arrows. Why fiery
darts? You remember the cowboys and
Indians. The cowboys and Indians were fighting and the Indians surrounded the
wagon train. One Indian would take an arrow, right it, and shoot the canvas of a
wagon. That was not designed to shoot the cowboy. That was designed to shoot the
camouflage, so that now all the soldiers, the Cowboys, would be exposed.
What Satan wants to do is create spiritual distractions,
the fiery dart, to expose us to his frontal assault and frontal attacks. But we
have the shield of faith. What is faith? Faith is acting like God is telling the
truth. It's acting like it is so even when it's not so, in order that it might
be so, simply because God says so. When you act in faith based on what God has said,
trumping your feelings and even trumping the facts, because you get into the truth,
then you have erected a shield of faith. And the Bible says we will overcome the
evil one by our faith. So when God sees you believe him, in spite of the attacks coming against you, then God will erect a barrier, an
invisible barrier, to cover you to protect you,
in spite of the attacks against you. Hebrews 11 gives what was accomplished
when men and women acted in faith and saw God do some
amazing things, in spite of the fact that often they were under assault by the
enemy. That same faith that worked for them, God wants to use it to work for us.
