"And take up the shield..."

Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, between 100 and 200 A.D., these stone walls were part of the "Limes" - a Roman wall of military defense that ran along parts of their empire. Thirty thousand soldiers were stationed along the Limes, controlling traffic between the Roman provinces and the area inhabited by Germanic tribes. It lasted until the late 3rd century when they surrendered the Limes due to pressures within the empire, and violent raids by Germanic tribes.

 

My husband and I got to visit this heritage site yesterday, which is now a tourist area in southern Germany. The remaining stone walls are enclosed in glass; nothing special in and of themselves, but one could picture the "Kriege" (wars) that took place on those plains, Roman soldiers positioned in 900 watchtowers along the wall to defend their empire. 

And how did they defend themselves? With these Roman pieces of armor, of course!

These weapons are modern, but were created to intentionally resemble the weapons from long ago as closely as possible. We were allowed to take a try at resembling Roman soldiers, too...

 

 

As I did my best to hold up the 8 kg (approx. 16 lbs) shield, I was overwhelmed by its hugeness. No wonder David felt unfit to fight when Saul dressed him up in armor way too big for him! Add a heavy helmet, tight belt, long sword, and a few other necessities to the whole outfit, and you're set to go! 

My thoughts drifted to Ephesians chapter 6, and the 6 words that I have so often read, have underlined in my Bible, and stored in my memory: "in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith...." Why? Because with it, "you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." These thick shields, made from 3 layers of wood, bound with leather, and sealed with metal, can definitely do some serious flaming-arrow-extinguishing. 

As I noticed how it was big enough to duck behind, I thought of how faith should also be big enough to cover our entire selves, our whole life. Faith isn't a small, wimpy bunch of good wishes that we pull out when we realize there's flaming arrows coming our way. No, it's much, much bigger than that. Faith is a state. We dwell in it, behind it, under it...prepared for when the attacks do come (because we know they will), knowing we are protected.

My husband and I have walked through something in the last couple of weeks that reminded us of the power of the shield of faith. When things happen unexpectedly, when circumstances don't turn out like you'd hoped or expected, when dreams appear to be broken and you're left in pain, take up the shield of faith.

 

There's a psalm (and a song) that says "You are my hiding place." The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, and Christ is our security.

Psalm 32:7
"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."

The shield of faith is big enough to hide ourselves behind. We don't hide out of fear, but hide in the shadow of His wings, dwelling in Him, our resting place, knowing His grace is enough. Faith knows that God is good and that I am loved. Always. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11).  Faith distinguishes the flying arrows of doubt, insecurity, and hopelessness that the devil would try to aim our way, and shields us from his attacks, at the same time opening the door for miracles to happen. Just like it did for the woman who was healed of bleeding and the once paralyzed man who got up and began dancing in praise to God because he BELIEVED that his circumstances weren't too difficult for Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself warned us, "In this world you will have trouble..." Our posture should be one of faith, prepared for attack because we know this earth is still groaning for full redemption, but confident in our Lord who has "overcome the world." Therefore we can take heart, and take up our shields of faith...