Stand - The Shield of Faith | Joanna Young-Radke

The Shield of Faith: Standing Firm When the Arrows Fly

There is a common misconception in Christian circles that if your faith is strong enough, the enemy will leave you alone. That if you pray enough, believe enough, and stand firm enough, the attacks will stop coming. But the apostle Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus, never makes that promise. What he does promise is something far more practical and far more honest: the shield of faith.

In Ephesians 6, Paul describes the full armor of God and calls believers to take up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Not to prevent the arrows from being fired. Not to make the enemy put down his bow. But to stop the arrows from penetrating. There is a profound difference between the two, and understanding that difference can change everything about how you face the battles in your life.

The Arrows Are Coming

Let us be clear about something: the arrows are coming. Fear, doubt, offense, anxiety, temptation, discouragement -- these are not signs that your faith has failed. They are signs that you are in a battle. Paul's instruction to hold up the shield of faith assumes that something is being fired at you. The question is never whether the attack will come. The question is what you are going to put between yourself and those arrows.

Faith is not a feeling. It is not the warm assurance that everything is going to work out exactly the way you want it to. Faith operates in the space between what God has said and what you are currently seeing. It is the decision to trust the character of God even when the circumstances do not yet reflect his promises.

Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as the evidence of things that cannot yet be seen. If you already see the answer, you do not need faith to believe for it. Faith is precisely what carries you through the waiting.

Twenty-Five Years of Waiting

Abraham understood this kind of faith. When God promised him descendants as numerous as the stars, Abraham was 75 years old. The fulfillment of that promise did not come until he was 100. Twenty-five years of waiting. Twenty-five years of looking at an empty nursery. Twenty-five years of holding onto a promise that seemed, by every natural measure, increasingly impossible.

Abraham's faith was not perfect during those years. He questioned. He and Sarah even took matters into their own hands, attempting to help God along -- a decision that created its own set of consequences. But Romans 4:20-21 tells us that Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise, that his faith grew stronger, and that he was fully convinced God was able to do whatever he promised.

That is the real faith. Not the faith that never questions, but the faith that keeps coming back to what God said. The faith that refuses to let the question become bigger than the God who gave the promise. Abraham's faith was not primarily in the promise itself. It was in the one who made the promise. And the shield was needed every single day in between.

Pick It Up

Here is something important about the shield of faith: it is not permanently attached to the soldier. It has to be picked up. That is an action. That is a choice.

You can know scripture and still have to choose to trust it. You can know that God is faithful and still face mornings where you have to preach to yourself, reminding your own heart that you are choosing to believe God no matter what things look like right now. That is what taking up the shield looks like in real life.

David modeled this in Psalm 42:11, essentially talking back to his own emotions, asking himself why he was so discouraged and then declaring that he would put his hope in God and praise him again. He acknowledged what he felt and then chose what he believed. That is the shield in action.

When the doctor's report comes, pick it up. When the finances do not make sense, pick it up. When someone walks away without explanation, pick it up. When your emotions are telling you something different than what the word of God says, pick it up. Faith is not passive. Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is to preach to yourself until your heart catches up with what you know to be true.

Standing in the Bean Field

In 2 Samuel 23, there is a warrior named Shammah who stood in a field of lentils when the Philistines attacked. The entire Israelite army fled. Shammah stayed. He planted his feet in the middle of that field and refused to surrender it. And the Lord brought about a great victory.

A field of lentils. Not a palace. Not a great strategic stronghold. A bean field. And yet Shammah understood that it was worth standing for.

The enemy would love for you to surrender the things you are fighting for simply because you are tired of fighting. Your children. Your marriage. Your peace. Your prayer life. Your relationship with God. He wants you to conclude that none of it is worth the battle. But faith plants its feet and says, not today. I am standing right here.

Even If He Doesn't

The most mature expression of faith in all of scripture may be found in Daniel 3, when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood before the furnace. They declared that God was able to deliver them. They expressed confidence that he would. And then they added the words that define the shield of faith at its deepest level: but even if he does not, we will not bow.

Biblical faith is not trusting God to give you the outcome you want. It is trusting God regardless of the outcome. It is believing that even if the door does not open, God is still faithful. Even if you do not understand, God is still good. Even if you walk through the fire, you will not bow.

So lift your shield. The arrows may come. But they do not have to penetrate. That is the promise. That is the shield of faith.