“Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armour so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.”
Ephesians 6:13 NLT
Paul continues to develop his theme of standing firm in the face of enemy attacks. We don’t run away, because we have all the resources we need to just stand firm. The devil only has control over us if we allow him to. If we stand firm he has no other way of destroying us. You see, God has provided us with spiritual armour, items more than capable of protecting us.
But what does “standing firm” look like in these modern times? To take an example, our 21st Century pilgrim might be susceptible to worry. He or she might be a member of the “what if?” brigade, always thinking up scenarios about the world and local events around us, that are destructive and threatening. So our thoughts might run this morning to “what if the food bill is greater than I have money for”? Note two things – the event being worried about hasn’t yet happened (it probably never will), and God promised that He would meet all our needs. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus”. Our faith is stronger that the worries we have, and we can stand firm on the Word of God, trusting Him for the solution to our dilemmas, no matter how problematic they might seem.
Notice too, that Paul said there would be a battle. In many ways, just living is a battle. We battle to earn a living. We battle with our sins. We battle in our relationships. We battle against the devil. But wait a minute! A Christian only needs to turn to God in the hour of need and the battle somehow becomes shared, or even taken from us. Romans 8:31 says, “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” and verse 37 in the same chapter, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.“. And then we have Exodus 14;14, “The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm”.
So there we have it. Standing firm is not a “nice to have” state that isn’t achievable by ordinary pilgrims. It’s a consequence of being sons and daughters of our wonderful Heavenly Father. We just call on our Heavenly Dad when the enemy appears over the hill, heading in our direction.
Being a Pilgrim 