The Armour (Armor) Of God: The Battle Belong To The Lord

The Armour of God - Message for August 25, 2024

At the beginning of world war II, France believed they had a solution to a potential German invasion. They had built what was called the Maginot line. The Maginot line was a defensive line built in the 1930’s that stretched for over 200 miles on the NE border of France.

You can see on the map, the strongest fortifications were along the German border. It was state-of-the-art, built of thick concrete with living quarters, heavy guns, store houses and underground rail lines.

There were 45 main underground forts, 97 smaller underground forts, 352 large guns that could rise out of the ground. They were connected by an underground railroad system and underground corridors.

French soldiers enjoyed state-of-the-art living conditions. It was designed to hold off a German attack. However, the Germans defeated the French by simply going around it through Belgium and through the Ardennes forest, which the French considered impenetrable.

The French were not prepared for the manner in which the Germans overcame this defensive line, simply by avoiding it.

In the end, the Maginot line was useless and France surrendered. France fell because they underestimated their enemy and relied on the wrong weapons. They didn’t anticipate the attack their enemy used. They thought they were protected, but weren’t. Pause

My wife and I recently again watched Band of Brothers, which is a superb 10 part TV series made around the turn of the century. The series dramatises the history of “Easy Company”, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army. They played a pivotal role near the end of the second world war.

I was born 17 years after the end of the second world war, and as a Canadian, I have been spared the spectre of war, which is rare in the history of the world. Most people in most of earth's history have had to live with war at some point in their lives.

Very often, on top of the individual struggles of people, there is this massive external battle going on around them. But in terms of war and such, mercifully, I and we have largely been spared this.

Unless you came to Canada from part of the world where there was such violence and chaos. If that’s you, I’m really glad you are here. We welcome our friends from other nations seeking a new life in Canada.

You see here we don’t have to deal with the threat of bombings, generally speaking, and we don’t have to fear for our lives every day, wondering how we’re going to eat, how we are going to deal with the hardship and brutality of war.

So external battles are not all that personally familiar to each of us. But internal battles...that’s a different story. Every single person in this room faces them. You might be facing them today.

You for sure have faced them in the past, and… You will face them again in the future!

Paul begins this section of Scripture that we are reading today, in verse 10 with an admonition, and encouragement to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

God is strong, and he wants us in him to be strong. He wants you strong, so that you can handle all that life throws against you. Do you believe that? He wants you strong so that you can take your stand against the schemes, the intentions for your harm that the devil has. God wants us to be able to handle everything that the devil throws our way.

And of course the key is that we do not fight on our own. We do not face the challenges and hardships of life in an isolated way, with our own limited resources.

God has given us amazing resources to be able to withstand and even thrive and triumph in life despite the hardships that we, if we are mature, will expect, will anticipate;

we will not be shocked when such hardship comes.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power". Does this sound like a suggestion? No. Here we are commanded to be strong - in Jesus and in Jesus mighty power. We’re commanded by God, and then we’re given the HOW.

The fact that God commands us to be strong means that we actually can be strong. AS a believer in Jesus Christ You have that ability because God dwells in you be the Holy Spirit.

Ever feel weak in your faith? Just say to God: “Lord, I’m feeling weak in faith. “I pray that you will strengthen my faith”. I’ve found that God delights to answer that prayer when prayed sincerely. And then of course we don’t indulge in things that make us weak, that make our faith weak.