Week 6 — Tuesday: “Suit Up”
Ephesians 6:10-18
When I was a young single man, I decided to pay a little more attention to my appearance. While getting ready for a few errands, I threw on a nice polo shirt and nice pants instead of the standard shorts and t-shirt I had become accustomed to. On went the clothes, and off I went. On one of the errands, I noticed some increased attention from the opposite sex, which was not unwanted at the time. It wasn’t until I was halfway through this particular chore that I realized that I was in Target dressed like one of the Target employees—the attention I was receiving was actually confusion as to whether or not I was “on the clock.”
That errand ended quite quickly, and the situation has not since then been repeated—thankfully!
Just like Target employees (and me on that day) have a dress code, so do followers of Jesus Christ.
Paul’s instructions start with “PUT ON” (v.2), which assumes that we don’t start with it on and that it is our choice and duty to get dressed spiritually for the battle that we are already in.
He reinforces it again three times: “put on” (v.13), “take up” (v. 16), and “take” (v. 17).
I’ve always loved this passage and the imagery that it produces. I did not like the thought that my armor had been sitting in my “spiritual closet” because I hadn’t made conscious decisions to PUT IT ON.
I have begun to “get spiritually dressed” by using this as my daily prayer before I go to bed and as I wake up. I ask the Holy Spirit to inspect my armor to ensure it is in good working order.
Unlike that day so many years ago when I accidentally dressed as a Target employee, we cannot accidentally get dressed in the armor of God.
It’s time to suit up!
—CONTRIBUTED BY CHRIS YOUNG—
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Christine Pence
October 11, 2023 at 4:13 pmI am so so sorry I’m so slacking these days I completely forgot about this and I just got caught up now I know you guys sent this yesterday but this is amazing Ephesians 6 I read it often the whole armor of God and the entire scriptures sometimes I do read the entire scriptures actually long story short in the chapters and stuff long story short and the paragraphs the long story short this is one of my favorite favorite scriptures the whole armor of God and it talks about the whole armor of God one of my favorites of the whole armor of God is the belt of Truth because there was a pastor Lonnie skiles at Big valley Grace community Church in 2021 when I spoke to him on the phone I think it was for prayer and the Lord had told him to tell me at that time that I wore the belt of Truth well I never forgot those words and during that year one of my neighbors said that their armor of their favorite armor out of the whole armor of God was the helmet of salvation and I was like well I’m glad that works for you I’m like for me it’s the best truth truth is very important to me as a human being and as a Christian that’s why I’m so detailed in my speech and I take a really long time to explain to people everything that annoys them it’s not that I mean to be rude it’s just I want to be honest I want to be truthful because Jesus Christ is honest and truthful he is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through him and God is holy and honest he’s truthful and I want to be like that I want to stand in truth I love the sword of the spirit because it totally defeats the devil and bye my own situation situations in life that I’ve been in I’ve had my fair share of battles with Satan and God has stood there by me faithfully through it all even though I have always been faithful to God and I feel bad about that and I don’t like lying and I do my best to always tell the truth because the Bible says that Satan is the father of lies and I want nothing to do with him so I do my best to stick on truth even though by nature because man has that dark side to him man has the capability of telling the truth and lying I like to stand on the belt of truth and the whole armor of God and I do pray it over other saints as well and prayers for saints worldwide because there’s so much Christian persecution going on in the world and now we have Israel at war with Hamas and so many dying in the horrors that come with that and then before that it was Russia Ukraine and then America’s had its it’s close calls with things over the past few years and so with our enemies and the list goes on so these are the birth pains these are the last days and if there was ever a time to have the whole armor of God strapped on it is right now and this present moment as the devil walks around and roars looking for someone to devour you know he prowls around sorry if I hash the scripture I apologize I’ve had a bit of a emotional date today anyway but yeah Ephesians 6 is one of my favorite favorite scriptures I read it all the time I pleaded over myself even when I go to bed and I pray over other believers I pray for innocent people and I pray for even those who are the wicked The sinner the the person that’s full of evil I pray for them to come to repentance in Christ Jesus that they’ll learn to bow their need to God and not to the little g God of this world and not to man who is no God either but yet we have people in the technological community the scientific community who think that they are gods and wants to make everyone a god and it’s like yeah there’s only one God and God makes that very very clear who that is and it’s not Satan it’s not demons it’s not so called aliens it’s not mankind it’s the holy One of Israel it’s Jesus Christ we all know we all know if you know you know if you don’t you need to get to know God through Jesus Christ in the beginning stages of my Christian walk 7 years ago and God call me back to him in 2016 after my back surgery my back surgery was August 18th 2016 I remember it till this day because it was such a fundamental epic change in my life the recovery was going to be one year and it took like two to three years to recover so while God was calling me back to him to be a Christian again and repentance and start walking with him I was laying around wearing a back brace and trying to move around in my new back that was hard and the pain let me tell you the physical pain of that I never want to go through that ever again I’ll tell you what that was a hard year for me 2016 that was a painful surgery anyway
Christine Pence
October 11, 2023 at 4:18 pmSorry I make such long messages I just always have tons to say I always have a lot to say always smile face LOL I know it’s not always funny to everybody cuz most people are really annoyed by it I try not to do it but I just have so much to say I just can’t I can never finish my sentences cuz I have so much to say anyway but yeah 2016 wasn’t a waking moment for me after my back surgery of August 18th of 2016 I went to the most painful recovery from back surgery I ever had in my life and I don’t think my hip back he’ll properly and I never want to do that again now I am handicapped and I need a power scooter or chair and now and mine’s broken currently but there are things being worked on currently and I use two walkers to get around my back hurts still sometimes I regret the surgery but at the time it was necessary but during that time of pain and suffering God called me back to him and almost two week repentance and I sat there trying to figure out my life trying to figure out my relationship with God and understanding I can’t do this alone back then like everybody else I thought I could do it on my own or with the help of other people and even though internally I still struggle with that sometimes the truth is now I understand I cannot do nothing on my own without Christ Jesus in it for he is the head of the church and he is the one who wants to make us be the head and not the tail and he is the one that wants us to stomp on the devil’s heads when the devil attacks and not be afraid of him and it’s not easy to not be scared of these beings I’ve seen these beings before they’re they’re real and they exist and they’re scary looking and they’re evil and you don’t want to mess with them that’s why we need God to empower us so that we can stand up when the Lord tells us to and stand firm in our faith against the devil in his schemes and his demons and that way will always be victorious in Christ if we always obey him which these days I struggle with obedience a little bit but I think I’m doing a little bit better but I’m still having my hardships and need prayer on that sorry for the long messages but this is one of my favorite scriptures this scripture of the whole armor of God help me so much the first three years of my Christian walk back to Christ seven years ago and 7 years later things are a lot different and I’ve changed a lot I’ve had one pastor and I’ve had other saints tell me they saw a light in me they can see a change in me they can see fruit in me they could see that I’ve lived for God I may be a Christian with some attitude because I love joking around and being funny I love being a comedian it’s just in me to be that way when I was a kid I was told I should have been a comedian but I love serving God I just can’t physically up and run a marathon due to my health disabilities and my spine and things but God is with me and he takes good care of me and even though there’s lots of tears in my life and anger and sometimes strife that in Isaiah 54 I believe God says if anyone serves up strife it’s not from him it’s not for me which means it’s not from the Lord so we know where it came from God is good and I love how the whole armor of God has served me well through this age of my walk and I was a Christian before then off and on in my life but back then it was different I would run to God and when things got bad I’d run back to the world now I’m trying to hang on to Christ because I know it’s the last days I know he’s about to come soon I know things are going into terminal in the world and I know things are about to change wholeheartedly because Bible prophecy is coming to pass wholeheartedly and I am ready to see my king are you? God bless