The Armor of God (Part 1)

As mentioned in a previous post, I am posting a 9 part series on the Armor of God. I wrote this 2 1/2 years ago and had originally posted it on a Christian message forum. Hope you enjoy.

The Armour of God

Ephesians 6:10 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power."

How can we be strong in the Lord? We need to be sure of our faith, of our beliefs. We need to be sure that we have accepted Jesus Christ into our heart and that we have eternal salvation. Without this surety, we can not be bold for the Lord and we can not be strong. If we aren't sure, we can not be effective for His kingdom. Make sure above all that you are absolutely sure of your faith.

We need to fully rely on God. Only He can provide us the means to fight the battles, of the spirit realm, which are ours. To fully rely on Him means to turn our will and life over to God, and let Him take the reigns and control things. Without this, or by trying to control things ourselves, we will fail miserably. We need to allow God to work through us and to use us, but He can only do this if we surrender all aspects of our lives to Him.

God's power is mighty and strong. He can and will help us in these battles. The Bible is full of stories of how God has used His power and might, and how He has equipped His children for the battles they faced. Read it and see - His word was true back then, and it is still true to this day. We can most certainly learn from those men and women of the past, our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 tells us "For though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."

We need to be in constant prayer and petition, reading and meditating on God's word, and even fasting. These things will help us grow closer to God and to become equipped to fight this war we face.

My friends, become confident in our Lord that He will equip each and every one of us, His children, to do great and mighty works for His kingdom. And be confident that He will equip us with the necessary means to fight the good fight, and to triumph over the satanic attacks we will face.

May God bless you and make His face to shine upon you.

Please Visit The Link and Pray

Another little girl needs our prayers. Please visit her page and pray for her. Also, click on 'home' to read what she is going through. Let's pray for her like we did with Rebekah!

I'm Doin' Fine

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm doing fine, in case you are wondering. Have had a few days of feeling restless I guess. I think I am going through a little "rediscovery" of who I am and such which has been uncomfortable.

I'm in the midst of my mid terms this week. Thankfully I only have 2! I had 2 Samuel this morning, and I think I did ok on it. I have Communication Disorders tomorrow and I am really not looking forward to that one. I'm somewhat "overwhelmed" with it all. I only got C+ on my first test (it was only 1 mark away from being a B- though), and there is just so much that I'm not used to studying (It's a communications/psychology course) so many definitions and treatments and procedures and such...so, can always use your prayers.

I'm hoping to have a better post to put up in a couple of days. Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still around. If I'm not here, you might find me on my knitting blog as well (listed under my profile or you can go right to http://kittenyarnsandcrafts.blogspot.com and see if I've posted there.

Off to get back to studying for my Communication Disorders mid term again!

Have a Christ filled day!

Spiritual Attacks

I just came from Hey Jules' blog, Faith or Fiction, where she speaks of a recent experience involving a spiritual attack and the realization that came to her. If you haven't read it, go and read...it gave me goose bumps.

As I have posted, in my previous post, that I have taken my application in to apply for the education program at school. Four or five years ago, I felt the Lord calling me to become a teacher and set out on the path in order to do this. It involved four years of working at my Bachelor of Arts, which I need before I can graduate with my Bachelor of Education. It has been a long and bumpy journey. I am now just mere months away from getting my BA, and as I said, have taken in my application for the BEd program.

Part of the application process is to write a three page letter that explains our call/passion to become a teacher. I prayed that the Lord would give me the words to say because I didn't know what I should say. I am leaving it in His hands that the words I wrote are the right ones.

Where am I going with this? What does it have to do with Jules' post on her blog? Well, let me explain. For two days leading up to my dropping off my application I felt under some sort of spiritual attack. At least that is what I feel it is. When the doubts would hit, when the "I'm not good enough" thoughts entered my mind, when I wondered if I really should be doing this...when all of these thoughts came to my mind, I would pray and tell God how I was feeling. I know He knew, but I told Him anyway. I asked His protection around me, I asked for Him to be with me during this. I confessed and asked forgiveness for doubting or not completely trusting Him...and then I would feel peace - until the next round.

Even as I walked into the school, into the office to hand in my application, even as I saw a prof dropping off a reference sheet and another girl submitting her application and thoughts of "look at this, more people applying - they'll probably get accepted and you wont" flooded my mind, I told God that this is all in His hands now. There is nothing more I can do, except pray. It has been two days now, since I dropped it off, and every once in awhile I get those thoughts. I am still praying, trying to leave it in God's hands.

The following paragraph is my comments (or maybe just part of it) from Jules' blog:

"I have been told before that if we are feeling great all the time about our walk with the Lord, that nothing is going wrong, then that is the worst thing that could happen to us. It means that we are stagnant in our walk, or we aren't doing anything for the Lord, we aren't being effective or affective, etc. for His kingdom. Satan and his minions will only bother us if we are a threat to him/them. Doing the Lord's work is a threat. Sitting on our butts contemplating life or doing nothing isn't a threat. The more we do for the Lord, the more we will be attacked. The more of a threat to satan and his minions that we become, the more angry and annoyed they will be and strike out at us. The armour is our protection, given to us by the Lord."

I try to remember to put on my full armour everyday. Sometimes it isn't until the day has progressed several hours, other times it is as soon as I wake up. The point it, we need to put on the FULL armour...ALL of it, and not just one or two pieces!

I did a nine piece "study" of sorts on the Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) on a Christian message board a couple of years ago and I will try to look for it later and put the posts up here. I think spiritual warfare is real and it is something that needs to be addressed and it is something we need to be prepared for. Please pray that I can find these articles and use them on my blog to help minister to others.

Have a Christ filled day!

Prayer Request

I have a prayer request that I would love for you to pray. Tomorrow I am taking in my application and letter to the school to apply for the Education Program. Please pray that all goes well and for my acceptance into the program.

In other news, the headaches that I had on Saturday were gone by very late in the evening and I was fine on Sunday, though the sinus one did come back briefly in late afternoon. I was able to take something as soon as I felt it coming on, so I didn't have to suffer through it for long until the sinus pill kicked in.

We did get that blizzard yesterday. A lot of snow fell, but I'm not sure on the final tally. They were calling for something like 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) though. There was also heavy winds and blowing and drifting snow. My classes did not get cancelled, though. The school was closed though until 11 this morning and had my class(es) been prior to 11, I wouldn't have had any. However, my first class was at 11:50 and my second one wasn't until 6:45 tonight.

Sorry it's a short post tonight. Have to update my knitting blog (www.kittenyarnsandcrafts.blogspot.com) as well and then do some knitting before bed. Just wanted to mainly come on and thank you for the prayers regarding my headaches, and to request the prayer about applying to the education program.

Have a Christ filled day!

Days Like Those

I've been feeling out of sorts today, and I don't know why. I don't think there is any real cause to why I was feeling like I did though. It was a sort of restless feeling where I just didn't feel like doing anything, I mean I wanted to knit and do some studying and go over my Psalms for Bible study (I got 3 done), but every time I tried to do something those weird feelings came over me and I couldn't do anything...I was restless doing things, and restless not doing things. I also felt sleepy for the majority of the afternoon even though I had had enough sleep (slept til I woke up without an alarm or anything waking me).

I also had a sinus headache today and it turned into a migraine for awhile, and finally to a "normal" type of headache. It is gone now, but I feel it coming back. They (whoever they are) say that when storms approach that can affect migraines. We are expecting a blizzard tomorrow afternoon/evening and I wonder if that might have something to do with it.

I'm feeling a little better now, but still not 100%. I hate this feeling - especially since I can't pin point why I was feeling this way today (aside from the headache which made me also feel not "all there" in the head...if that makes sense). I did my bible reading this morning, started the book of Mark and did my devotion and the whole time it felt like I was forcing myself to do it because I honestly just wanted to throw it across the room. That was what the feeling was like inside my head/chest...to just throw it down or away. It was like that with everything today, not just my readings. Maybe I'm just having an off day.

Tomorrow will be better. I'm thinking positive.

Rocking Chair Thoughts 2

Thank you all for your comments and prayers with regard to my previous post. It makes a lot of sense that a passion isn't something that happens immediately, but is the result of something that builds up over time.

I have still been praying that the Lord would give me a passion for something; not simply an interest but a passion. It doesn't have to be for some famous organization or popular cause, in fact, I think I would rather it not be popular because so many people are involved in those already.

Anyway, I have also been reading through my copy of "My Utmost For His Highest" devotional (by Oswald Chambers) and the readings for the last two days have basically been about being willing to be a sacrifice for His kingdom. The key word here is willing. I think that just might be my problem...

While it is easy to say "I am willing to do such and such for the Lord", it is not always easy to do. I think that maybe what it comes down to is "I am willing to do such and such for the Lord IF it doesn't take me out of my comfort zone" or IF it won't cause pain, etc. To me, this willing (or lack thereof) stems from fear and maybe even pride and lack of humility/humbleness. Wow...that's a shock (and I'm not being sarcastic about this either). This last part just hit me know as I was mulling it over in my mind, and thinking of what to write next.

What does this have to do with having or finding a passion? Well, I want a passion for something that shows Jesus, something that will help to further the kingdom of God, something where His light shines through to others...that sort of passion. How can I do that if I am not willing to sacrifice for Him? Am I willing to give up my spare time, am I willing to talk to others I might not normally talk to, am I willing to step out of my comfort zone - step out of the boat so that I can walk on the water?

Fear. That will stop anyone from doing anything. Fear does not come from the Lord, but from our enemy satan. He does not want us doing anything for the Lord - not leading others to Christ, not showing His love, etc. So, he presses our buttons and whispers in our ear that we will fail at whatever task we set out to do, that others will laugh at us or our beliefs, or even whatever it is we are wanting to do or attempting to do won't be beneficial to the Lord. He'll tell us anything to stop us.

Pride. I'm not talking about the "good" or "positive" pride such as being proud of a job well done. I am talking about the pride that the Bible speaks about, that we should not have. Pride also stops us from doing things for the Lord. Pride stops us from opening up to others, to our fellow brothers and sisters of the Lord, to let them know we are hurting or need help. So often we want to do "it" on our own, we don't want help from someone; so often we don't open up because so and so might gossip to others about our situation.

Humility/humbleness. Is a lack of humility or humbleness the same as having pride? I don't know, but to me it seems to go hand in hand. If we aren't humble about something chances are it is because our pride is getting in the way. That is just my thought on the matter, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly how that fits in with passions...I'm sure it does, but I haven't formed an adequate explanation to put it into words just yet.

I need to be willing to let the Lord use me. I need to be willing to step out of my comfort zone I think. I'm totally fine with doing for the Lord providing I can stay in my comfort zone but really, what does that do? Sure, I can keep to myself and pray for others, I can knit for the mitten tree, I can talk on the internet to others about Jesus...I'm not placing myself in situation where I might have to be put in the fire to be tested. That is scary.

So, anyway, I think I might have also found my next topic for my next post in my thoughts tonight...we'll see. Anyway, I think that maybe if I become more willing to step out of my comfort zone, maybe the Lord will place me in a situation where I will develop a passion for something...who know's. I'm just thinking aloud, or rather thinking in type I guess you could say. But I do strongly feel that after praying last night my answer to "why don't I have a passion for something" is that I need to become willing...

Hope this all makes sense. Have a Christ filled day!