Doves On Distant Oaks

You Gotta Have Faith

What is faith? The dictionary definition of faith would be the complete trust in someone or something based on expectation rather than proof. The writer of the Book of Hebrews, however, states that faith is complete trust in someone as proof of expectation: "Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). In other words, our faith is based on a trust that knows, beyond any doubt, that God will act according to His promises.

We can have faith in many things. The assumption that a room will be illuminated when we flip a wall switch so nonchalantly. The expectation we have that our boss will treat us fairly in relation to our job as well as our co-workers. The inherent hope that our doctor is current on all the latest medical research when helping us heal. The list goes on—faith is a part of life. For Christians, faith in God includes the certainty that He will protect us from sin that may be headed our way.

I like to think of sin as arrows that fill the air. It's much like those archers in armies over the centuries that filled the skies with arrows in the random hope that they would take enemy soldiers down. If you're ever watched those old epic war movies, I'm sure you may recall heavily armed men, on foot or horseback, charging forward, only to be cut down when a hail of arrows fell. The archers firing those arrows were not aiming at anyone in particular, just in a general direction. The attacking soldiers' only protection was to hold a shield over themselves.

Satan, and his army, will certainly attack us directly, probing our weaknesses. But another attribute they possess is to fill the world with sinful things in the hope that one of those find their way in. We see it all around us: immorality on television and in movies, in the books we read, and just the overall degradation of our sensibilities.

We get drawn into those temptations so easily. There are smart phones, the internet, and social media where we distract ourselves with senseless pursuits. There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but they can open a door to these temptations of the World. We have very little to protect ourselves from these arrows of sin. Little except for our faith in God to protect us.

That faith is the same as modern soldiers have. They no longer carry a shield because the arrows have grown so powerful. Modern arrows are ICBM missiles and other weapons of mass destruction that not only threaten soldiers, but civilians as well. However, there is protection. Ground RADAR, missile tracking satellites in space, and defensive missiles are all part of a National Missile Defense System that can intercept enemy missiles. Is this system adequate enough? The soldier has to have faith that it is.

We carry no shield, so like the modern soldier, we need faith. Our faith is that God will protect us from the hidden worldly missiles of sin headed our way. That's why we pray, "... do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one ..." in the prayer our Lord taught us. We are asking God to help us avoid sin so that our testimony remains pure.

We could withdraw from the world altogether to avoid sin, but God doesn't want us to because that's our battlefield. That's why we fight the enemy, not just for our own sake, but so we can bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to the rest of the world. So we need to be in the world, but need protection from it so one of those arrows doesn't slip in and bring us down.

How do we keep our faith strong? By turning to our Great Protector and asking for help. By saying what the father of his sick son said in Mark 9:24, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief."

In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

– Ephesians 6:16

Keywords: Faith, Temptation, World

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