I don’t know if this is for somebody else or just me, but by nature I expect/demand a lot of myself, and 30 years of limitation due to my conditions, has not changed that critical voice that berates me when I run out of stamina way before I accomplish what I want to get done.

I have heard that the people we meet who seem to expect the most or to be the most demanding,  are usually twice as hard on themselves.

That may be an arcane concept to some, (those ones who  expect EVERYTHING of someone else and demand nothing from themselves) but then again, that sort doesn’t read blogs much either, so, I guess it might resonate for this audience.

I think I have reached a point of being more realistic about what I can and can’t do, yet sometimes I still hate not being able to do more for someone I care about.

I have noticed in comments and prayer requests, an increasing number of people that ask prayer for uncharacteristic spikes of anxiety that seem to come out of nowhere. My emotional barometer is quite sensitive. For most of my 20’s I was carrying the proverbial “weight of the world” due to real trauma. After I experienced my first “panic attack”, I learned that was my “crammed-down” anxiety, surfacing in a moment my mind was not even on the things stressing me out. That’s why they are so scary.

The world has become an exponentially more stressful place in the 42 years since then.

The armour Ephesians 6 talks about, is more crucial than ever. The older I have gotten, the more it’s gotten through my thick skull that everything is spiritual. Or, it might be more accurate to say there’s a spiritual component to everything in life.

Most people believe in “the spiritual” but what too many don’t know, is there are only 2 kinds of spirit: Holy, and unholy.

Aging tends to strip things down to practical terms. What does it mean to put on the belt of truth? I know all the usual points made, about the belt being the anchor holding the rest of the armor in place, but more important than that, truth is a Person. Believers are hidden in Christ. We don’t have to hold everything together in our circumstances, Christ is already doing that.

The breastplate that the Roman soldier wore, was leather, soaked in water, to put out the fiery darts, right? We’ve all heard that, but what does that really mean in practical everyday terms?

It means, guard your heart. The passage is about DOING. It’s about being proactive. It’s about leading your heart (not following it) and disciplining our thoughts and emotions. If you feel conviction, repent, but if you feel guilt, remind yourself there is now no condemnaton for thosewho are in Christ Jesus. Recognize that “guilt” is a lying dart from satan. Know the difference.

The shoes of the gospel of peace, allows us to stand on treacerous terrain, yes, but how, in practical terms?

By reminding yourself you are seated with Christ in Heavenly places, a co-heir with Christ, who has been given all authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and nothing shall by any means hurt you. No weapon formed against you will prosper. You recognize these are not my words, but quotations of scripture, right?

If you’re like me, memorization was not my strong suit even in my youth. So to the sticklers out there that say, you gotta know it exactly and word for word, and the chapter and verse, I say hush!

Was it Einstein that refused to memorize anything he could look up? Whomever it was, he was both intelligent, and wise. Read the Bible, hear the Bible, write out verses, listen to preaching in which pastors speak and read scripture, and you will begin to remember the principles, if not the word for word verses. You likely also will know if it’s Old Testament or New, and an approximate “address”. Knowing that much will help you locate it. I am not saying don’t try to memorize, just don’t beat yourself up and/or look at it as some monumental and legalistic task to “know the Word”. I read of a lady around my age, who has memorized whole books if the Bible. That’s awesome! I can’t do that.  If you read, and five minutes later you don’t recall most of it, well, like water through a filter, it still leaves your mind a little cleaner as it passes through the seive. It never returns void. It always accomplishes something.

Now how about that shield if faith?  What “action” is that telling you to take?

It is making the choice to trust in the Lord and lean not on your pitiful human understanding. Remember His strength is made perfect (complete) in our weakness. Well, then! His strength hit the jackpot in my weakness, how ’bout yours?

We freak out, knowing we are not strong enough to cope with this or that. The problem is, that we ever took that weight and expectation up on our own shoulders to begin with. I did that just yesterday. Which is what got my mind on the Armor. (Sometimes we gotta preach to ourselves!)

The helmet of salvation: It is not hard to surmise this piece has to do with our thinking. The  armor is proactive, you see? If you’re gonna defend yourself, you have to prepare ahead of time. We know the helmet is salvation. What we fail to realize, especially in western “churchianity”, is that salvation is supposed to be our IDENTITY, not just a part of who we are, or a thing we do on Sunday.

There are those who on judgment day, will hear “depart, I knew you not”. That’s why we are instructed to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, and to study to show ourselves approved, and to examine ourselves to see that we be in the faith. Working out does mean living it, but I think it also implies “working out” as if solving an equation, ie check your “math”!!! You may be calculating on eternity in Heaven, only to find, too late, you did it wrong, because you didn’t study the Book for yourself, and just went by what somebody told you!!  I for one, don’t believe taking the Lord’s name in vain is referring to “cussing”. I think it’s bearing the label of “Christian” calling yourself a Christ-follower, while not actually following Him, or living for Him, or trying to follow His example.

What have you been saved from? The old line “If you were tried in a court of law for the ‘crime’ of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” still applies. Not someone else’s estimation of your “worthiness”, not comparing yourself to some despot. God’s standard is perfect holiness. No laws broken, ever!  Well, the only man that ever did that was Jesus! Yup. You’re gettin’ warmer. So “how can anybody else be perfect” you ask!  If you don’t know the answer to that question, then you may not be saved, (or you’re scripture-illiterate, which is not good either, especially in these dark waning days of the present age). You’ll find that answer in Romans 4:2  and 2 Corinthians 5:21,  but you may not understand it entirely without more than those verses. That’s because God designed the Bible to be understood “here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept”. In other words, frequent, repeated exposure to the whole Bible! Like Chuck Missler said, the New Testiment is in the Old testament, concealed, and the New Testiment is the Old Testament, revealed. Did I say that right? I miss ole Chuck. He’s up there in the mezzanine, munching on popcorn, chatting with Moses while waiting for the grand finalé of the Church age.

Which brings us to that last weapon, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Bible itself. We need to SPEAK the word to the circumstance. Like Jesus did. Satan tells you there’s no way out, you respond “It is written….There has no temptation (trial) taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer (allow) you to be tempted (tried) above that you are able (to bear), but will with the temptation, also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

The nightly news says “be afraid”, but “it is written God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love and a SOUND mind!”

The Ephesians passage also tells us to pray in the spirit and for all saints with perseverence. The armor is ineffective without the prayer in the spirit! That is, not just words.  Our spirit, connects with, plugs into the Holy Spirit via prayer.  That is what gives active spiritual power to the armor. And one more bit that doesn’t often get covered in Eph 6 sermons:

God does not expect us to defeat the enemy. He wants us to understand, and keep in mind that He already did so!! 

“Having done all”… having done all what? (All the putting on and activating of the armor in prayer!)

Having done all, what? Having done all, stand.

Yesterday, even though I panicked, at the end of the day I was still standing. When my husband was diagnosed with cancer, God got our family through it, and we were still standing!

When we had zero income and no insurance for a time when our kids were little, God moved  different folks, who understood that what we have is not our own (but all is His), to give. I couldn’t even tell you how, but every need met!

I love what I read once on a church sign which said “God hasn’t failed me yet, (although He has scared me half to death a time or two)!”

Can I get a witness?

He knows our frame. He’s not up there deducting points for those momentary doubts.Just continue to stand. It’s warfare. Whether a skirmish or all out war, keep putting that armor on each day. Doing  it consistently will keep strongholds from forming, expose the schemes of the devil, lighten your burdens, and develop spiritual discipline.

The Sword is both defensive and offensive. It can enable you to not only stand your current ground, but even advance into enemy territory and rescue captives of the enemy.

He’s coming. Stay standing. Occupy the territory He has granted you influence in. No natter how big or small. Pray over your grandkids. Write a letter to that distant relative who has been on your mind. Pray for the politician you can’t stand. You might think your little light doesn’t do much in a world this dark. Au contraire! God saw the widow put her little mite into the treasury, giving out of her poverty. Your $5 to a missionary this month might mean that missionary has enough gas to go reach that one last holdout that is holding back the rapture!  We have to encourage one another, and think on what is good and  true. Our thoughts are not His, but sometimes they’re not even ours. I think Satan can and does put thoughts into our mind. Cast down vain imaginations. Replace them with scripture TRUTHS!

I don’t know how much longer we gotta wait for that Trumpet, but as the generations in my family before me used to say, it won’t be as long as it has been!