The War for Our Souls: Week 4

Fiery Faith

Faith is a word which most are quite familiar. We hear it in scripture and song books, see in churches and t-shirts. Yet this past year, I cannot think of a word more appropriate to describe my world.

Year 25 of my life brought change and heartache, causing me to respond by becoming an acquaintance with faith.

Still, there was nothing that could prepare me for year 26, consisting of a third stroke, blindness, and hospice. I shed more tears than I ever imagined possible. Although, in the end, I found faith to be my beloved friend.

Therefore, as we continue in our study of Ephesians 6 and the war for our souls, we are going to learn what it looks like to take up this weapon.

Hebrews 11 does a beautiful job of defining faith to begin. Verse 1 says, “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.

So basically, to have faith means to believe in something or someone even when we cannot see it.

Of course, this can apply in religious context. But we also put our faith in things and/or people every day. Think about it. Even just sitting in the chair you are right now takes faith. You believe it will hold you up even when you didn’t necessarily see it being built.

It doesn’t take long to think of more examples of faith in our world today. Especially with the level of knowledge and with data multiplying exponentially, it can be easy to put our faith in technology or in professionals like doctors.

We also tend to have an innately engrained faith in ourselves and our bodies. Time can teach us to have faith in our tribe of family and/or friends, too.

While none of these entities or people are necessarily “bad”, we must remember they are temporal. Technology will break. There will always be more “up-to-date” knowledge. Our human bodies do not last forever. People will let us down.

Although, we can take heart in knowing we have a God who will never fail or fade. He and His Word will always remain.

So, how does this “faith” look in our day to day? It can take all different shapes.

I have found one of the greatest gifts is that faith does not have to be a one time decision. Instead of giving in to fear, I can choose faith by trusting God with every moment of every day.

• When I am weary and I don’t know how I am going to make it through the day dealing with all my disabilities, I can choose to trust Him and His strength by posturing my heart in praise.
• When I am looking at all my bills and am unsure of how ends will meet, I can choose to trust Him by taking Him at His word and putting Him first by tithing.
• When I am reminded of my past, I can choose to trust the price He paid on Calvary to set me free and what Jesus says of me.
• When I am alone and feel like no one cares, I can choose to trust that Jesus understands and knows exactly where I am. No one and nothing is an accident to Him.
• When I and the doctors are filled with more questions than answers and the prognosis seems grim, I can choose to trust Him for only God knows my beginning and end.

Dear one, I have seen it time and time again. Even when all seems lost and hopeless, our God is faithful and absolutely nothing is impossible with Him.

So as we suit up and prepare to fight this war, Ephesians 6 verse 16 says, we are to “hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the evil one (NLT).”

The enemy is going to try to distract you every way he can.

Although, as we talked about, we must take a stand and fight our fear with faith by choosing to trust Him every moment of every day.

We don’t have to feel pressure to take leaps, only step by step in obedience.

I promise if you listen, He will lead.

It is also imperative to feed our faith, not only with the Word of God but with the fellowship and testimony of others.

We NEED community folks. We cannot do it alone and you never know when a story that you share will bring another hope as they fight their own war.

As always, if you are in need of prayer or have questions, please feel free to comment below or email me at contact@alishascroggins.com.

What a blessing it is to have you embarking on this journey with me and I look forward to next week when we hop into Ephesians 6 verse 17!