Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. (Ephesians 1: 2 – 3).
Whenever there is a failure in life at any moment the question that comes in our mind are, “Lord, why this to me?”, “Am I not walking in your path?”, “It is only I who suffer and everyone else are happy. Why?”, “Why are you allowing this to happen in my life?” etc… and only very few ask “Lord give me the strength to carry this cross/suffering”. I was also a person who use to ask God all the “Why?” questions when I faced a failure.
Later when I started to love the word of God and meditate on it, the verse “The Lord is my Shepherd. I lack nothing.” in Psalms 23, which gave me all the comfort and strength during my difficult times.But still after much of my prayers and asking Lord before starting the work in course of time I faced failures in my life. I had asked Lord “Why is this happening to me?”, “Why didn’t you reveal this to me?”. Our Lord taught me this lent through the life of Elisha (2 Kings 4:27) that it is not necessary for Lord to show everything in our life and about everyone around us. Elisha was a mighty prophet who got more than the powers of Elijah from God. When God can hide something from Elisha then why can’t He from me?
When I realized this I had another query in my heart. Lord, I did all my activities by keeping my faith on your word like David had on you, when he went and killed Goliath with sling and stones. I know your word is powerful. Then, what made me to this failure?. Our Lord asked me did David killed all his enemies with sling and stones? I said to myself “No”. He went for battle with sword. I remembered the movie “King David” where David used to wear his helmet, breastplate, shoes, carry sword etc. I said “Lord, David was equipped with all the armors when he went for battle against his enemies”.
Our Lord asked me “So, what armors do you have?”. I said “Lord I am not fighting any battle. I am just doing my daily activities and I don’t know what armors I have. I just believe and have Your Word”. Our Lord said now read and meditate on Paul’s letter to Ephesians 6:10-18. Reading and meditating those verses I found that Paul is asking the Ephesians to put on all the armors of God and explains why it is necessary to put on all the armors. He names it as below.
truth – a belt around your waist
uprightness – a breastplate
the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace – shoes
faith – a shield
salvation – a helmet
given by the Holy Spirit, the word of God – a sword
I realized that with all the above armor in life any man can withstand/resist the evil day.
Our Lord said you have to put on all your armors like a soldier, you must know when to use your sword and when your shield.
How many of these do I have and put on in my life to resist the evil day?
May God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grant peace, love and faith to all the brothers. May grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, in life imperishable. (Ephesians 6: 23 -24)
