Walking With Christ

Ephesians 6:11-20 (11)Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. (12)For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (13)Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (14)Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, (15)and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. (16)In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; (17) and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, (18)praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, (19)and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, (20)for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.(ESV)

Yesterday, I talked a lot about clothes. I know I’ve talked about the armor of God before, but I wanted to drill in to make a subtle point that is often overlooked when it comes to the topic of clothes. Then I want to tie this concept together with something in the garden of Gethsemane and the expanded version of the armor of God that most people miss.

All of the clothes listed yesterday and today have a few things in common. They are gifts from Jesus and do not belong to us. We cannot make them ourselves and we, truly, are not worthy of them by ourselves. These are external to us. We have to put them on. We have to decide to wear them. We can be given all of these amazing garments, but if we choose to not wear them then we will not get the benefit of having them.

Most people do not wear shoes to bed. I would bet that most people do not make a habit of wearing the same clothes to bed that they were during the day. This further means that people have to change clothes and put on clean clothes. Don’t get ahead of me.

While we are sleeping we are not wearing most of the amazing clothes in our spiritual wardrobe. When we wake up, we have to take the time to get dressed for the day and put on each piece of clothing for the day.

Most people speak about the armor of God and stop at verse 17. In verse 18 above it says to “keep alert with all perseverance”. When the enemy comes do not fall asleep. Even if you do manage to keep on some of the clothes of the day, the sword and shield require active participation to be useful.

Pivot to make the connection to the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying just before He was arrested. He took the disciples and told them all to wait while He went to pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, a little further with Him then told them to stay awake while He went in a little more to pray alone. Luke 22 says they were told to pray so that they would not fall into temptation. It was while Jesus was praying and after everyone had fallen asleep that Judas came with the soldiers to arrest Jesus.

In those moments while Peter, James, and John were asleep, they did not have their spiritual sword and shield to protect them or Jesus from the betrayal of Judas. They had not kept alert as commanded by Jesus and repeated for all of us in Ephesians 6:18.

This isn’t to say that we should never sleep. We need rest physically and spiritually. We have to show faith and trust in the Lord during those times. No, this is a reminder that we should always be careful to actually put on the gifts of Christ when we wake up. It needs to be one of the first things we do when we wake up because we are more vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy until we do.