12/16/2025
Are you completely dressed and ready for the day, or have you professed your belief in God and Jesus Christ, but not clothed yourself in those things they provide you that will protect you against the world? On top of that, are you ready to wrestle with the issues pertaining to God’s will for your life that require you to stand tall and be more than a weak and unthinking creature?
“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.”
Ephesians 6:13 ESV
The armor of God covers, and protects, us from head to foot. We are shielded by such pieces of protection as truth, righteousness, peaceful readiness, faith, and salvation. Thus clothed, we are then provided with a weapon that we can use to fend off the enemy; we are given a sword, which is the Word of God. All of this is detailed for us in scripture:
“Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”
Ephesians 6:14-17 ESV
We are prepared in this manner so that we can do something very specific. Our task isn’t to defeat the world singlehandedly, Jesus has done that, no, we are meant to pray.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 ESV
“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, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,”
Ephesians 6:18-19 ESV
Praying is not a passive activity, but a verb... an action word that refers to our calling out and conversing with God. It is coupled in this verse from Ephesians with another action word... supplication. We often confuse this word, supplication, to mean “giving in” or “yielding our will”, but this word does not mean to yield ourselves; it is to actively beg and plead in an unyielding fashion. We can even substitute the word wrestle for it. Do you wrestle in prayer?
And let’s not be confused with whom we are wrestling. In the Bible, the greatest example of wrestling isn’t with the world, or ourselves, but with God. Jacob was a con man, and scoundrel who wrestled as the dark one’s champion against God. He was alone and distraught when he wrestled all night long until finally his hip was put out of place, and he was crippled. Wrestling with God is not something a believer or seeker typically wants to do; no, it’s the act of a rebel, or a renegade, and eventually, like with Jacob, the Lord will leave his mark on them. Do we have a mark on us that reminds us of a night when we too wrestled with God?
“The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.”
Genesis 32:22-25 ESV
As believers God clothes us in His armor to protect us against the world... not so that we can wrestle and struggle with Him. If we had to wrestle with God in order to believe and obtain His eternal blessing, the church would be filled with limping saints. In fact, we are clothed with armor to protect us against the world, and with the effect it longs to have on us. So it is to this end that we are dressed in armor and given a sword. Pastor Oswald Chambers alluded to this as well when he wrote these words:
“Always distinguish between God’s order and His permissive will, i.e., His providential purpose towards us. God’s order is unchangeable; His permissive will is that with which we must wrestle before Him.” - Oswald Chambers
Chambers makes a clear distinction between wrestling with God Himself and wrestling with our own understanding of how His will involves and inserts us into a fallen world.
The world would like to pull us towards itself. It is like a rip current that sweeps a swimmer away from shore and out to sea. Without an understanding of how to properly defeat it, even the strongest of swimmers would certainly drown. God equips us, His children, with this understanding through His Word and supplements it with all the other tools we find in Ephesians six.
Are you ready for a dangerous swim? Are you ready to wrestle with the world as it attempts to defeat you and dissuade you from believing and delivering the gospel message? Are you prepared to do those things that will allow you to rescue yourself from the world’s grip, its rip currents, or to save another soul who is likewise being challenged or swept away? If not, then it is time to dress yourself in the armor of God… and pick up the sword of His Word. It’s time to enter your prayer closet and supplicate yourself before God.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for dressing and equipping me for my struggle against the world, and the effect its dark lord desires to have upon me. I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit who clothe me in the armor you have prepared for me and who teach me to use your Holy Word to defend myself. Go with me Lord as I face my own doubt and struggle to save my faith as it battles against the forces of darkness. Give me strength and understanding as I confront the world that is attacking me from both within, and without, my walls. Wrap me in your armor to repel all blows and allow me, by your Word, to sufficiently wound my adversary so that I can deliver the victory of Christ to you. You are my defender Lord, and my champion when the odds are overwhelming. Keep me safe within your strong tower and hear my prayers as you deliver the strokes of your sword, wielded with your mighty hand, for their blows are far beyond my ability to deliver. I praise you in my struggle, I praise you as I wrestle to overcome the doubts within me, and I praise you in the victory that you alone can guarantee me. Hear my pleas Father; hear me as I reach out to you in supplication asking fervently for the strength to understand and accomplish your will in my life.
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.”
Proverbs 18:10 ESV
Amen!
Rich Forbes