by Martin Wiles @LinesFromGod
At every game, he armored up.
Our son and daughter-in-law’s middle child loves T-ball. When things changed where my wife and I had more free time in the evenings, we planned to attend his final few games of the season. We had seen pictures of him, but nothing suffices for in-person observations.
We eased into the parking lot and waited for our son and his family to arrive. When they did, our son opened the door and let our grandson out. Sure enough, he looked just as the pictures had portrayed: white pants, a blue team shirt, cleats, and a backpack full of accessories.
But we didn’t see all his armor until he batted. He marched to the plate in full array. Added to what we’d already viewed were batting gloves and a batting helmet. The gloves helped him grip the bat, and the helmet would keep wildly pitched balls from hitting his head. These he donned until he made it around all the bases.
When his team played defense, his armor changed a bit. The gloves came off and so did the helmet. In their place, he slipped on a glove.
Although a pretty good ballplayer, our grandson struggles with focus. And one of his lapses cost him. As he played in the dirt, not paying attention to the batter, the hitter slammed a ground ball our grandson’s way. Our grandson happened to look up just in time to see the ball, but not in time to keep it from barreling into his eye. He whimpered a little but shook it off and went back to playing. After the game, he proudly showed us his shiner.
Paul knew a little about armoring up too—and why he needed to.
He had a string of enemies who falsely accused him and even tried to kill him for doing what God had instructed. He also knew believers would need the same armor. That’s why he said, “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11 NLT).
A belt of truth, a helmet of salvation, a sword of the Spirit, a shield of faith, a breastplate of righteousness, and feet shod with the gospel of peace. Not anything that would help us in a ball game but pieces a Roman soldier needed for protection. And pieces we need in life, the writing life included.
Leaving off any piece of our spiritual armor makes us vulnerable to attacks from our spiritual enemy as an open spot made our grandson vulnerable. And sometimes we meet the enemy, and it is us. Although God provides the armor, we must suit up . . . daily.
Not all temptations are sinful. Some merely lead us to unwise decisions or away from God’s path. As writers, we have our own laundry list of temptations: to write a nasty response to the editor who rejected our devotion, article, or manuscript; to give up after a few rejections (or even one); to remain in our comfort zone; to get lazy in our training; to hurry through a project and give it less than our best; to skip out on rest and exercise; to think we can do this thing calling writing alone; or to forget to pray over our assignments.
God promises no temptation—sinful or not—will overtake us if we depend on his help, but his help comes when we help ourselves by armoring up. Temptations have many manifestations and sneak up on us if we’re not careful. Staying armored up keeps us safe. And when we protect ourselves, we also protect others, since almost every temptation we succumb to has a domino effect to some degree. An angry email to an editor may ruin a future opportunity. And laziness might keep us from writing what that one person needs to read.
So, armor up. You’ll be glad you did, God will be glad you did, and those who read your work will be glad you did.
TWEETABLE
Featured Image: Photo by Nicole Green on Unsplash
Amen. Put on the full armor of God every day. :-)
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