Suit Up! - by Stephanie McFadden

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but ... against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms ... Take up the shield of faith, with which you can 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 requests.        Ephesians 6:11-12, 16-18 NIV

This past weekend, Rick and I took the kids and the new camper from our home in Michigan down to Kentucky to see the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. Let’s just say that was an... um... adventure.  
During the course of the weekend, we had quite a few... errr...disturbances-in-the-force, if you will: just some highlights? On the way down to KY, after our dinner stop, the truck caught the edge of a curb. Well.... the truck went up, and the trailer did not. So now we have some nice-size scratches and a small hole in camper shell (did I mention that this was the maiden voyage of our brand-new camper?).   Thanks to some crazy weather, our drive down took almost twice as long as google maps projected. Over the weekend, we found many things wrong with our new camper, our kids were acting up and whining/complaining most of the time, and even the propane lines from the bbq grill sprayed on Rick’s hands (he’s ok!). On the way to the Creation Museum, our middle child got car sick (thankfully there was a Walmart nearby to buy her new clothes and some cleaning supplies!)... it just seemed like one little thing after another.... We were all stressed, frustrated, and annoyed. 

As the weekend was unfolding, I couldn’t help to think of the irony: we wanted a God/biblical-based vacation...and yet this was shaping up to be a difficult trip- This was not the vacation I planned. Why were our good intentions shaping up to be bad memories?

I think there are a couple of possible explanations: Maybe we were just having a string of bad luck-Things happen: this was a result of a couple of dumb choices and a few “oopsies” along the way...or Maybe God gave us a few ‘bumps’ in our journey to save us from some more serious ‘mountains’ in our path. ...or maybe Satan was throwing us a couple of his ‘flaming arrows’ to distract us from God.

The bible tells us that our largest battles will be against Satan.  We know that Satan will lose in the end, but we also know he’s not going down without a fight.  The only way we can prepare to stand against evil is to be fully equip ourselves with all the tools God gives us: The Armor of God- His Truth, His Love, His peace, our faith, our salvation—His word. Once again, knowledge is power.  

I love The Message version of these verses:

Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.    Ephesians 6:13-18 MSG

With this trip, we wanted to grow our knowledge of the Bible and strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ.  We were taking our children, the next generation of Christians, and giving them a tangible thing to remember for (hopefully) years to come.  This trip could be starting points of discussions between Rick and I, our kids, and even these devotionals for weeks to come. We wanted to strengthen our family by spending time together. Grow together, learn together, pray together.  I have to imagine the devil wasn’t thrilled with us taking that additional step to grow our relationship with Jesus.  But.... this weekend, Satan didn’t win. Satan will never win.

When evil (no matter how large or small) is attacking, we need to remember to keep the focus on God and rely on His tools: Grab your shield, your belt, your breastplate, your helmet, your sword, and your boots.... by golly, we’re gonna need it all!   Let’s make sure to keep growing in our faith so we can add chains and plates to our Godly Armor.  Let’s make our faith is so strong that Satan’s arrows cannot get through- let’s extinguish those flames and make them ineffective. Let’s study God’s word, pray, and strengthen our relationship with Jesus.  Let’s Suit Up!