Choices are for the Living

“Choices are for the Living”

Ephesians 6:13-18, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and request.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

Readers, before some of us put on the full armor of God we may need to take some things off.  For example some of us have exchange our belt of truth for a belt of lies. Once we have chosen to exchange one lie for the truth it becomes easier to exchange another if two can slip by then three stands a chance. The next time the enemy tries to wrap a belt of lies around your waist say this, “What does the Bible say?”   “In the ancient garment of the day, the girdle about the loins held in place every other part of the uniform of the soldier. It was essential. A great battle in the past, we are told, was won by a clever general who told his men to cut the belts of their enemy while they were sleeping.   The next morning the enemy troops were so busy holding up their pants that they weren’t able to shoot their guns and, therefore, they lost the battle.”(Resource; Vernon McGee Volume 5)   What battle are you losing because you allowed the enemy to come in while you were sleeping and cut the belt of truth in your life?

The second piece of our armor is the breastplate of righteousness; many of my Readers today have exchanged their breastplate of righteousness for a breastplate of shame, guilt, and condemnation.  You wear it like a Martyr almost in prideful way like a wounded solder with a purple heart. Readers, you need to know who you are in Christ. You have let your pass dictate your future by not excepting God’s forgiveness.  Over the years I’ve heard many people say the hardest person to forgive is me.  Did you know, nowhere in the bible does it say anything about us forgiving ourselves but it does mention God’s forgiveness towards us. We are actually not allowing God’s forgiveness in our lives when we hold onto things we have done in the pass. In Micah 7:19, “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”  But yet we know the scripture, and we still choose to dive in the depths of the sea to retrieve what our mind will not let go of.  It’s sad but many of you would rather bare the guilt than then forgiveness because punishing ourselves for the sin is the way we compensate for the sin we committed. All that is required is repentance.

The third piece of armor is our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  If our feet aren’t ready for the battlefield we might march when we need to be still and be still when we need to march or go forward when we should turn back.  Have you traded your shoes fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace for a stiletto? There is peace in shoes that fit properly.  Have you ever wore a pair of shoes that didn’t fit your feet, how long did you stand? Were you distracted by the fit of your shoes or the blisters on your feet?  This is exactly what Satan wants is for us to put on shoes fitted with the readiness of distraction. The Word of God is what clothes your feet with the peace of readiness.

The fourth piece of armor we need to take off is, doubt and unbelief so we can distinguish the fiery darts of the enemy. Many of us are not holding our shield of faith for some of us our shield has become nothing more than a suggestion, we have traded our faith for doubt. Many of you are looking for jobs right now and every time you get turned down you say things like, “I knew I wasn’t going to get the job.”  Your words have power, I’m not talking about the name it and claim it movement I’m talking about your confession of the Word of God. Murmuring, complaining, and arguing landed the Israelites in the desert for forty years. Why not try thanking God for the job He has already predestined for you to have. Instead of saying how sick you are what about saying how healed you are.  I know there will be some Nay Sayers in the bunch, but let me tell you, there’s power in your words if you don’t believe me just think back on your life at a time you were hurt the most, were words used at all? We need to guard our tongue as if it were precious gold because life and death rest upon it. The fifth thing we need to take off is, our flipped attitude about salvation; many of us are satisfied knowing the circle we hang around with is going to heaven, but I assure you Jesus is not satisfied with our complacency. If you don’t know if this one applies to you ask yourself one question, “When is the last time you told someone about Jesus?” Sure we put our helmet of salvation on as to protect our minds but what about the Greatest Command, “Love your neighbor as you do yourself.” Would you let yourself go to hell? Challenge yourself to tell at least one person a day about Jesus.   The sixth thing some of us need to take off is business, we have become so distracted by the world we have put our sword away, ( the Word of God,) Oh, we didn’t intentionally do this it began gradual  we started getting busy so we started reading just one paragraph, praying for 10 minutes, then our life got a little busier so we reduced our prayer down to 5 minutes and reading down to one verse, and as life would have it we became extremely busy and our prayer reduced down to Hi, Jesus this is_______________ bless my day and my families day thank you Amen, and our reading became obsolete.  Oh, Readers, some of us need to take off the business of the world and put on the stillness of the Word. Lastly Ephesians’ tells us to pray in all occasions.  Are we praying on all occasions? I think many of us have exchange praying for complaining. I think a vast majority are content if they pray over the dinner occasion. We must pray. We must take the Word of God at its Word. Mathew 6 says when you pray, when you fast, and when you give, not “if.”

 Choices are for the living

Casting my net for Jesus

Michele Davenport

For prayer or questions email me at fbministries@comcast.net

To order my books, “Ripened on the Vine,” a true testimony of my life, or My Devotional called, “From My Heart to Yours.” go to fbministries.com