Shield of Faith

Shield of Faith
July 26, 2010
Psalm 91:4 "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

In the book of Ephesians the writer tells us to clothe ourselves with armor in our efforts to be successful in this life. He instructs us to wear spiritual armor for the purposes of combating the evil, often invisible, forces that come against us from Satan and his henchmen. As part of that armor, we are to acquire the Shield of Faith (Eph 6:16 "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.) Satan is the evil one and he is trying to kill you. He doesn't want to hurt you, he wants to kill you. He will do whatever it takes to separate you from Christ and to keep you from spending eternity in Heaven with Him. To this end, you are under constant attack, ALL the days of your life, whether you admit it or not.

Satan attacks you like a fowler. A fowler is a professional hunter who only goes after one type of prey, a bird (fowl), with the intent to kill it. You and I are just that bird, as the psalmist gives us this imagery in Psalm 91.
"I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

A fowler uses several tactics to catch his prey. The first and easiest is to set a trap. The second, requiring more skill, is to shoot the target with an arrow. An arrow is used because it is silent as it travels through the air, hitting its unsuspecting victim. Satan likes to use this technique on you and me. The Bible says Satan uses flaming arrows. The flame represents the fire of Hell. If Satan is able to hit you with his arrows, he could eventually kill you and take you to Hell.

While this is scary, if we have the Shield of Faith, we can protect ourselves from those fiery arrows. Here is how that faith protects us. Go back to Psalm 91, where it describes Satan as the fowler. The Bible says that God will protect us; "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." Faith in the knowledge of Jesus the Christ is the only thing that will save you from going to Hell. Jesus Christ is the one described in the Psalm as covering you with his wings. The fowler hunted Jesus Christ, but the flaming arrows could not harm Him. When we stand firm in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He will cover us with His wings, the same wings that withstood the fire of Hell when Jesus was crucified on the cross.

The words you need to memorize are "His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." This is what protects you when you take up the Shield of Faith. We must have faith in the person of Jesus Christ, and it we do, He will keep us from Hell. This must be trusted and believed. Even if our bodies die, His faithfulness will take us to Heaven if we stand firm in the knowledge of Christ and His work on the cross. Faith, then, becomes a perfect circle of protection, a shield. The fiery arrows will still come, you cannot stop that, but they will not take you and you will not go to Hell.

1. How often do you take up your spiritual armor?
2. How can you be on guard from Satan's constant attacks?
3. How can your faith protect you from Satan?

Don't take my word for it; study it for yourself: Ps 91:1-16, Eph 6:10-18, 1 Peter 5:8