053Ephesians 6:10-20

posted by davegardner on May 17th, 2009

God gave us all the tools we need to effect this world for the gospel. The biggest realization I’ve had lately is that I’m not taking advantage of them. The Village Church at Midlothian has been covering Ephesians for the last few weeks and closed out the chapter today. Paul covered a great analogy for the gospel in using the armor of a roman soldier to describe each individual tool that God has given us to accomplish his mission. I’ve read Ephesians 6 several times in life and this specific passage countless times. Unfortunately I’ve never read it with the scope of battle in mind the way I have lately. I’m a fan of soldiers and war. I’m a guy and I enjoy a good fight scene in a movie. Strangely though, I’ve never considered the battle i’m in with being a Christian the way I have lately. The great thing about this is that God hasn’t used this passage to convict me about getting in the battle, so much as encouraging me that I’m already safe in Jesus. It’s more exciting to think that the Devil has already been beaten in Jesus. Because of that, my only job is to do the work required in order to rescue those who don’t know it. It changes things. It means I don’t have to fight the devil, Jesus has destroyed him for me. I only have to obey Jesus now, so what’s stopping me now?