Ephesians 6:16 (NIV®)
“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
It’s that time of year again. The culmination and craziness of the college basketball season. I don’t watch sports too often, but as I watched a few games this week, I noticed something. Every team that has made it to the tournament has a good offense and can score from anywhere on the court. But in these later games, it seems offense isn’t enough. They also have to have a really good defense if they’re going to advance.
As I thought on that, I realized how applicable it is to our Christian walk. We try to do all the right things. We go to church. We love our family. We read our Bible. We pray. We try to live as Christ would have us live, and walk it out as best we can. So much of that, I would consider to be our offense. But the Christian life requires just as much defense.
The devil throws accusations at us. We become discouraged. We get angry. Worry and fear dominate our thoughts. Anger, greed, loneliness, rejection, fear, all of these (and more) are what I think of as areas of defense. We can’t allow these things to take root in our lives. We can’t let them gain footholds. We have to stop them.
Our defense is our faith. That is why Paul called it our shield. We trust God and His truth, His way, His life, and we choose to stand in Him and in what He says. The attacks and temptations are quenched. And just like really good defense on the basketball court, our defense of faith leads us back to a life of offense. We shut down the advancement of the enemy’s tactics and we run the other direction.
Be encouraged today. So much is taking place in our world that can beat us down. Christ has given us faith to believe and faith that can overcome. Let’s ask Him to help us learn how to use the shield of faith better in our lives. We can all do better. We will miss some opportunities, but I truly believe we will have to master both sides if we are to grow strong in Christ and win. So, I’ll meet you in the winner’s circle – playing offense and defense.