Shield Maintenance

In our house, there have been a lot of conversations about faith lately- how just a little faith correctly placed can guard us from so much. In recent years, it has been monumental to recognize that my faith was a little cattywampus because I had believed lies that were spoken over me. It wasn’t that I wasn’t a Christian anymore or anything. It’s just that every time I believed a lie that I had been told, I was therefore NOT believing something that God says. 

After several conversations recently with my girls about how a “shield of faith” works, I was thinking about this today. Over the last several years, learning to believe the right things has effected our entire family. This is the picture that came to mind:

Imagine a shield. Pick your time and place- it could be Roman imperial or tribal African, maybe you’re more of a Viking person or even sci-fi, nanotechnology would work too! Just picture yourself and your shield. Obviously if you have a shield, it’s purpose is to block attacks from your opposition.

Elicia Johnson, use only with permission.

Now imagine that while you’re not paying attention, your enemy dismantles your shield, breaks it into a bunch of pieces and haphazardly pieces it back together. When you grab your shield and hold it in front of you at the sound of ambush, it’s not going to be very effective. Maybe it keeps out a shot or two, but your enemy has cleverly tricked you into holding up the perfect (holey, crumbling) target to attack all the while thinking you’re defending yourself.

Each of us has a chance to believe truth. No matter our culture or creed, we all believe something- many things really. They determine how we think and act. When we believe in things that are true, it acts like a firewall. For instance, if I truly believe I’m beautiful then all comments that say otherwise won’t stick. (Humorously, it sounds an awful lot like the whole rubber/glue thing from the playground.) 

As Christians, our faith must lie in the God’s whole truth. Counselors all over the world work to improve people’s lives by teaching them half of the truth, and it does help. They teach people that they are loved and that they have worth and purpose. But we get to shine the light to the world about the rest of that truth, namely that God is the one who loves the whole world has made each of us for his purposes. 

Anyways, about those shields we get because of that faith. In our lives today, it’s all too easy to stop being vigilant. We slack off from taking care of our thoughts. And it’s at these times that our shields of faith can be tampered with. The most convincing lies are those that look a whole lot like the truth:

Instead of believing your life has great purpose, you look at another’s and make their purpose your ideal.
Instead of believing you can have a freedom that no one can take away, you feel the angst of needing to work harder all the time for your freedom.
Instead of believing you are beautiful, you think you are (or will be) beautiful only when_____.
Instead of believing you can overcome, you believe you were just born this way. 
Instead of choosing joy where you’re at, you believe joy is in your future.

Elicia Johnson, use only with permission.

You see what I mean? Truths rearranged can be easily accepted lies. When this happens, our defenses are weak. We easily succumb to emotional, spiritual and physical bombardment. And that’s a sure fire way to succumb to temptation, illness, fear, etc.

*If you’ll allow me to bare my hippie side😳: studies have shown that our bodies function more sluggishly at the cellular level when we think negative thoughts. My hypothesis is that we’re simply not operating on the “wavelength” so to speak that God intended us to. And when we do operate the way he intended us to by believing Truth, our bodies even work better! Chew on that one for a minute! Aaaand I’m done.*

If this is making any sense to to you at all, I highly recommend that you write down as many statements as you can think of that reveal what you’re believing. Begin with “I am,” “I can’t” and “I think” and go from there. After you’ve brain dumped, go though one by one and replace them with the corresponding truth. If you’re a Christian, book, chapter, verse; straight from scripture friend! Scratch those lies out to your heart’s content if you’d like, but don’t throw your page away. Keep it. Memorize it. Saturate yourself with so much truth that you won’t be fooled if someone tries to dismantle it. Come back to it as a self-checkup. Lies we’ve believed before can be the most comfortable to accept again.

So friends, I would like nothing more than a whole bunch of messages saying you sat down with Jesus or even a trusted friend (or both) and worked this out. {After I thought I had done a pretty good job of sweeping up, my oldest friend (besides my mother), Danielle totally called me out saying something along the lines of “ You don’t think you or your house have value unless you have people in and out of here all week.” She was right and friends like that are pure gold.} So whomever you sit down with, start reforming that shield of yours and keep it well cared for. You are loved and worth the effort, and not to mention a more whole and helpful human when you live out the identity God gave you. 

With Love,
Elli