Armor of God part 4 (shield of faith part1)

Ephesians 6:16, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

Faith is more than just belief alone. “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” James 2:19. One man put it this way, “Faith involves trust and reliance. I may "believe" that a stool can hold me. I exercise my faith in the stool when I rely on it by sitting on it!”
Matthew 6:30-31,33, “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ………But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
The greatest chapter I have found so far on the subject of faith is Hebrews 11. It starts out in chapter one telling you just what the definition of faith is. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Then there are several examples of great faith. Abraham; Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” Moses; Hebrews 11:25-26, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”
One of the most interesting examples is Jericho; Hebrews 11:30, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.” This to me is one of the greatest examples to us that we are to trust Gods way to accomplish a task, even if it seems ridiculous.
All through the Bible we see that faith is not just a belief but an exercise of trust. Not just lip speech that God can do anything but living as if He can.
It is a matter of looking to the eternal not the temporal. That is what our sermon was this last Sunday. Our pastor held up two bills. One was a “$1,000 bill” and one was a “$10,000,000 bill” he said, “If I were tell you that you can either have this $1,000 bill now or this $10,000,000 bill in a year with another $10,000,000 every year after that, what would you take? “ He continued to explain that we would all wait a year and although we had nothing that whole year, what would our attitude be? We would be joyous!!!
The shields of the Roman soldiers were often damaged. They were always doing repair work on them before battle. In the same way we are not to ignore the health of our faith.
We are to pray, and thank God for what he has done for us. In doing so we remind ourselves of the power he has had in our lives in the past and keeps us from forgetting to trust Him for the future. Col 2:7, “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” Philemon 1:6, “That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” 1Tim, 4:6, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.”
That last verse adds another tool for repair to our shields, the Word of God. Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Another important way of keeping our faith strong is by not only our membership in a local church but our involvement as well. The roman shields had on the side of them hooks. They used these hooks by huddling close together and hooking their shields together to form a sort of impenetrable tank. We accomplish this in our churches by sharing our gifts (Rom 12), praying for each other (1 Thess 3:10), and comforting each other Romans 1:12, “That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.”
Another way our faith is strengthened is by the testing of God. We all know the story of Job but there are many more examples of this. One of them is the first chapter of James. James 1:3, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
Lastly we are called to test ourselves to see if we are even in the faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” If we are not in the faith to begin with there is no way of accomplishing any of the above mentioned areas of growth. I’m sorry if I have to leave you hanging there. I have some idea of how we test ourselves but I haven’t done a sit down and dig for the answer study on what the Bible says about the matter. Actually, I came across a few aspects of faith that need a further study so this may have to be a 2 parter.