Shield of Faith

Shiel of Faith

“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one”

Ephesians 6:16

So far, we have learned about the belt of truth. What it means to always to tell the truth and how telling even the smallest of lies makes it easier to tell BIGGER ones. We also learned how living a righteous life protects our vital organs, it gives a breastplate for protection. Then we learned how God gives us different “shoes” through learning his word. He fits us with the right equipment for every situation that satan could throw our way.

Now we get to talk about how to take up your shield of faith.

The first thing we need to figure out is what a shield of faith is to you. To us it means having strong faith, such durable belief that you can stop anything satan throws at you.

What is the purpose of a shield? As a kid, (or parent) we use a shield (trash can lid, frying pan, anything you can find) to protect us from bullets during a nerf gun battle. Sometime we use our emotions as a shield to hide from others. Another HUGE shield we have today are cellphones. We hide behind them as we make social media posts or comments and say things to others that we would never say to their face. A shield is something that we chose to hide behind. It protects us.

How is your faith a shield then?

There was a time when I knew God but didn’t let the world know how much I loved him. I thought that God didn’t belong in business, work, or anywhere that I might be judged for knowing him. Therefore, I chose to keep quiet about my relationship with him. I used FEAR as a shield.

Now I choose to shout out to the world how much I love God and how much he loves all of us. I traded my shield of fear for a shield of FAITH.

Faith is your biggest defense against the evil of the world. Faith that God has the situation under control. Faith is knowing that God will protect you from any situation. Just as Daniel’s friends had when they were thrown into the furnace (Daniel 3:8-30). They had so much faith that they said if God choses to protect us he can. If not it, still doesn’t mean that he is not the only God.

They trusted that God would protect them.

Can you imagine for a second a flaming arrow flying at you? I struggle with imagining that, but I can tell you one thing. It would scare the crap out of me!
This part of the verse tells us what our shield of faith is made out of though. It is stronger than the toughest metal on the planet. It withstands flaming arrows and anything else that stain can throw at you. your faith is your first line of defense against the evil one.

Something to think about. If you were put on trial today for being a Christian, what would the verdict be? Do you live a life so full of faith that there is no doubt that everyone you meet knows your are a Christian?

Prayer

God we come to you today with an open heart, open mind, and an open body. Fill us with faith for you. Fill every nook and cranny of our lives with your word, with your goodness. We are so thank for all the armor that you give us to use. Help us to use it. Help show us how it can be used to protect others and ourselves from the evil one. God we thank you for giving us faith. Help us to have so much faith in you that we KNOW beyond a reasonable doubt that you are in control. Help us to throw away our worldly shields of fear, emotions, and any other shield we might be hiding behind and take up our shield of FAITH. God we know that faith is stronger than anything else is in the world. Help us to use our faith every day. Help us to show others our faith so that they might see you in the way we live our lives. God we are greatful for everything that you give unto us. Help us to give unto others as much as we can. Thank you for giving us Shield as strong as our faith.

Amen

Will you pray with us?

Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation

All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel

For all military personal serving our country and their families

Those in Leadership positions throughout the world

Prayer

Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

Amen

A Little More

 The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

My smile immediately vanished.

I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

They gave me the details.

My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

so……

I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

Well……..

After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

But my team went to work!

Guess what????

We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

Here’s the point of all this.

When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

Dan Greer