The Shield Of Faith Through God’s Word
Everyone standing for marriage restoration for a while has heard so much about faith that we might feel like screaming if we hear it one more time, especially if we’re unable to attain the faith we hear everyone else talking about. So it’s important to talk about faith in less general terms, because having a better understanding of what it is and how to get it, makes it more likely that we’ll be able to live our lives by faith, as so many Bible verses make it clear we’re supposed to do, including 2 Corinthians 5:7, which says We live by faith, not by sight. And Hebrews 10:38 even says But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” Yet, it’s important not to confuse living by faith with living by the law, since Galatians 3:11 says Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” And Hebrews 11:6 tells us why faith is so important to us as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, because it says And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. And Hebrews 11:1 gives us God’s definition of faith, which is Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see…that’s what God expects from us as we stand for the restoration of our marriages. Being sure of what we hope for is not so difficult, but being CERTAIN of what we can not see is a huge hurdle, but one we obviously need to overcome based on everything the Bible tells us about faith, especially that it’s not possible to please God unless we come to him believing that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Then in addition to faith being necessary to please God, Ephesians 6:16 tells us In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Since we’re in the battle of our lives for our marriages, definitely a matter of spiritual warfare, it’s very important for us to realize how faith can and must be used as a shield to fend off ALL of the fiery darts Satan throws at us every day of our lives. And we find the key to that in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, which says For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And the best example we have of how that works is the one Jesus himself set for us when the devil tried to tempt him, in Matthew 4:1-11, Where we see that every time Satan tried to tempt Jesus, He SPOKE the word of God back to him, and the devil finally gave up and left Him and then angels came and tended to Him! And just as that worked for Jesus, it works for us, because that’s what it means to take every thought captive, making it obedient to Christ! Reading John 1:1-4 helps us better understand that, because it says In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. So we reject and overcome the lies and deception of the devil by making our thoughts line up with the word of God, which is what it means to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.
It’s very important to note that Jesus always responded to Satan’s temptations with the spoken word of God, which we need to do as well, because there are many Bible verses that talk about “speaking” our faith, such as 2 Corinthians 4:13, which says It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. And Jeremiah 23:28 says Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. And even though most of us have heard Romans 10:8-10 many times before, it doesn’t necessarily apply just to salvation in terms of being born again when it says But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. That certainly makes a very strong case for why we need to speak out loud the words of faith we believe in our hearts, as does Hebrews 13:7, which says Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. And the verse that so clearly spells out how important the word of God is to our faith is Romans 10:17, because it says Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. So we have to hear the word to believe it, and believing it is what gives us the faith to speak it, and when we speak the word when Satan attacks us in any way, our faith serves as a shield against him. And in the same way, our spoken words reveal when we don’t have the faith we profess, because as Luke 6:45 says The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. So when we speak words of doubt and disbelief, God and everyone else knows we don’t really believe the promises found in His word, so we are NOT living by faith and we are not pleasing God, because the words we speak reveal the true measure of our faith. And Proverbs 10:20 makes it clear that our spoken words are valuable, because it says The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value. And one of the most important verses when considering the power of the spoken word is Proverbs 18:21 (AMP), which says Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]. So when we want the faith needed to speak life into our dead marriages, we have to read and study the word of God, listening to it as much as possible, until the words coming out of our mouths line up with it and create the shield of faith we need to repel every fiery dart Satan hurls our way.
The following verses are just a few to give us a better understanding of the power and faithfulness of God’s word and how it shields and blesses us.
Genesis 15:1
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. “
Psalm 33:4-6
For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
Psalm 138:2
I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 119:114
You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.
Proverbs 30:5
“Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.