Read: Ephesians 6:10-12
Put on the whole armor of God. (v. 11)
When you got up this morning you probably followed your normal routine: personal hygiene, getting dressed, perhaps private or family devotions, breakfast, and then out the door to begin the day. But you did something else without realizing it: you put on the invisible armor that prepares you to face the world.
Depending on our personalities and situations in life our personal defenses might include wealth, expertise, intelligence, power, humor; the list can be as long as our honesty cares to make it. We really are weak and vulnerable creatures. This is the human condition, and perhaps we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves. But it’s good, at least, to recognize what we are doing. It takes a towering genius like Shakespeare to remind us of a truth we know implicitly: that without the defense mechanisms of our invisible armor we are but a “poor, bare, forked animal” (King Lear).
As a Christian, I’d much prefer to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14) instead of the deceitful (to some degree at least) psychological armor I don every day. How can we do this? Paul tells us how in the familiar passage from Ephesians where he describes the Christian life as spiritual warfare and urges us to put on “the whole armor of God.” It is to this passage we will turn for our meditations in the days ahead.
As you pray, ask God to give you the grace to put on the Lord Jesus Christ today.
About the Author
Tom Bast
Tom Bast lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, in retirement from a career in publishing.
