Lexzie in Christ

I’ve been memorizing Bible verses alongside one of my best friends. As many people know, Ephesians 6 – which details The Armor of God – is among one of the most powerful, and often quoted, pieces of Scripture. It goes without saying that it is a strong passage to have stored in your soul.

Wouldn’t you know… about a month after memorizing, I ran into a handful of frustrating conversations which left me a bit confounded.

I took them to prayer, and God revealed something serious to me. He impressed upon me that I’m often so obsessed with maintaining a state of peace, that I’m sometimes unprepared for conversations which deserve to be met with a spiritual response. After all, we are supposed to “always be prepared to give the reason for the hope that [we] have.” And, spoiler alert: Most conversations will either reach a satisfying resolution or completely dissipate once you start pointing to Jesus.

Listen… I love my peace. After all, it’s one of God’s promises to His children.

But, God showed me that there is work to be done. Spreading the Gospel and walking out my faith doesn’t only happen on my terms, when I’ve cleared space to do so. It happens during mundane conversations. It happens during tense moments. It happens during conflict, when heavy emotions threaten to take over. It happens when you want to respond via your flesh. It happens when you’re prepared and when you’re unprepared.

Which is why we don’t want to be unprepared. We don’t want to be caught off guard.

During that prayer, God brought to my memory, His armor. And, at that moment, I realized that I didn’t actually know how to put it on! He led me to create something and, with the help of an article from GotQuestions.com, I’ve included it below.

I hope it’s as helpful for you as it was for me. This can be used when you’re fielding tough conversations from others, or when you need to take some of your own thoughts captive!

THE ARMOR OF GOD

Quoted paragraphs, paraphrased from GotQuestions

Bullet Points + Side commentary, LexzieInChrist

•••

The Issue (Write it here): ___________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________.

Belt of Truth

“Distinguish the truth from the lie.”

• What are they saying? (Or, what are you saying to yourself?):
• What is the truth:
• Sum up the lie:

Breastplate of Righteousness

“Jesus guards our hearts from the accusations and charges of Satan.” (My takeaway: Satan intends to condemn, eternally. But, he can’t condemn a Believer. Satan can only get us to live in the weight of that darkness while on earth, IF we give him that permission.)

• Through this lie, the enemy is trying to embed in my heart, that:

Gospel of Peace

“Satan plants traps to keep us from spreading the Gospel. We have to be prepared to advance the Gospel regardless.”

• One way that I can spread the Gospel right now to this person OR to others is by:

Shield of Faith

“The shield of faith extinguishes the flaming arrows of the evil one. Satan’s arrows of ‘fear, doubt and dismay’ won’t land if we know that we are shielded by a perfect Jesus.”

• This lie falls in the category of (Fear, doubt, dismay, temptation, rage-baiting, etc.):
• Rebuke the lie in Jesus’ name.
• Ask God to lift your heavy emotions.
• [Optional] Say to the person: “You’re trying to plant seeds of doubt. That goes against everything God has embedded in me.” Or “I rebuke your seed of fear in the name of Jesus.”

Helmet of Salvation

“Protects a Believer’s head from false doctrine and from temptation.”

• True doctrine: (Assurance of salvation, No one is good or righteous except but in Christ, Jesus promises rest, peace, joy in Him. Fruit of the Spirit, etc.)
• The false doctrine they are trying to put forth is: 

Sword of the Spirit

“In the wilderness, Jesus overpowered Satan with Scripture. Everything else is defense. This is offense.”

• Scripture to combat this lie: xxx
• Scripture to combat this lie: xxx

Prayer

“Without prayer and reliance on God, our Spiritual warfare falls SHORT.”

My prayer is (Write it here):

Final Takeaways

Come back to this later.

• Takeaway 1
• Takeaway 2

Ephesians 6:10-18

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.