What is the shield of faith that Ephesians 6 talks about?

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16).  

Lately I’ve been working on another book.  It’s one just of summaries of the Bible and how it all points to Jesus.  As I’m going through the Old Testament, it is amazing me how much of it is about faith.  Nothing was accomplished without faith.

Of course, we have Hebrews 11 that highlights a lot of the people of faith.  But as it says, it cannot possible list every person and every great moment of faith.  And that is true.  Hezekiah showed extraordinary faith.  Caleb as an old man had great faith.  And so many more.

What is faith? There are several nuances of faith.  There is evidential faith.  There is saving faith.  There is abiding faith.

But perhaps the best definition is found in Romans 4:21 that was used to describe Abraham – being fully persuaded that God has power to do what has promised.  It is the faith that has shaken nations.

One of my favorite moments of faith is the story of Shadrach, Mechach and Abednego.  A command was given that all people should bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar.  They refused.  So the king ordered them to be killed in a fiery furnace so that no trace of them would be left behind.  But they replied with this:

 ^“If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

That was faith.  They believed God had the power.  And were willing to trust him with their eternity even if he did not deliver them in the moment.

But what about us?

It struck me today in church as the pastor was preaching on this, that the faith we read about in Ephesians 6 is not just saving faith, but rather abiding faith.  The helmet is the helmet of salvation.  But the shield is about faith in God’s nature, character, his power and his love.

When the attacks come, it is often, “God, do you love me?  Do you care?  Do you see me?  Why did you do miracles for others but not answer my prayers?  Why have you not blessed me when I’ve stepped out in faith over and over and over again”

What happens is that when our confidence in God’s nature and character, starts to falter, we let our shield down a bit.  And when our shield comes down, the fiery darts hit.  And that’s a problem.

When the arrows are flying is when we must need our shields at the ready and when we need others at our side with their shields up also.  But the devil whispers that the shields others have are strong, but ours are not.

Our first sign that we are letting our shields slip is that we lose our hope and our joy.  It’s not that we don’t grieve or have hard times, but hope and joy can persist even among the hard times.  In fact, hope and joy are signs of maturity in the Lord, and of consistent faith in his love and his care.

Wow, have I failed in this.

Let it be a new day.