But the
description of the armor is not material. The description of the battle and the
‘powers’ that we must win over are not material but mental. These ‘principlalities’,
‘powers’, ‘rulers of the darkness’, and ‘spiritual wickedness in high places’
are the temptations, fears, concerns, doubts, dreads, opinions, false claims,
and false opinions that we must wrestle with not physically but mentally. They
are the lies of the devil, the temptations that ruin our lives or at least make
our lives uncomfortable after we fall for their claims of pleasure. The intense
fears or subtle worries, the works of the devil, try to make us feel hopeless,
abandoned, lost. How do we defend
ourselves from these mental principalities and powers, temptations and fears?
We do it when we
begin our day in prayer and communication with God, Good, Principle, The Only
and One Power, the Creator of the Universe and Man; listening to and being
obedient to this Divine Love. When we do this prayerful work every day we are
putting on our ‘armor’. We are putting on His Truth as our defense; His Love
for our protection; His Mind for our wisdom and understanding; His Spirit for
our joy, happiness, and strength; His Soul as our beauty and grace; His
Principle for our Law that counteracts all false claims of another law or
potentate; His Life for our eternal well-being. This is putting on our whole
armor. We are seeing we are at one with God, Good, and His All-knowing,
All-seeing Power.
This armor of God puts us in our right frame of mind as witnesses to the Power of God and His glory and victory. This armor protects us during our day, leads us in His way, and defines who and what we are as His perfect image and likeness, His offspring, His child. This armor is for our protection and defense against the wiles of the devil, evil, error, mistaken beliefs and opinions, false personal desires. This armor is really the embrace of Love. The Love that loves and guards us. The Love that watches our every step as a Mother. The Love that protects us, fortifies us, and gives us strength as a Father. This Love loves us because this Love knows us. The Truth concerning this Love arms us every day with the Truth of the what and who we are as Love’s perfect child.
When we take the time every morning and all through the day to put on this armor, adjust it, make sure we are fully under the cover of it, then we see God’s healing, protective, directive hand throughout our day. He leads us in His way. He reveals to us what we are to do, say, know, and express. He sustains us and gives to us all we need. This armor protects us from the lies stating otherwise, making us afraid, tempting us into believing in another life outside of God’s ever-presence. This armor protects us from feeling lost, less than, or uncared for. The time we take to put on our spiritual armor fortifies us, clarifies issues, and embraces us in Love. It is ‘unceasing prayer’ that keeps us armed throughout the day.
“in all things
approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions,
in necessities, in distresses,…by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by
kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the
power of God, by the armour of righteousness [supreme goodness] on the right
hand and on the left…be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for
what fellowship hath righteousness [supreme goodness] with unrighteousneness? And
what communion hath light with darkness?”2
This isn’t
persons that we are to be unyoked from. It is the false temptations, fears, and
vanities that can never believe in nor express Good. For they do not come from
Good, they are the mental pull that pulls us away from who we are as the
children of God. The armor of supreme goodness stands forever against the lies
and temptations, the counterfeits of Good. They are the works of evil.
“What, then, is
the material personality which suffers, sins, and dies? It is not man, the
image and likeness of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted likeness, the unlikeness
called sin, sickness, and death. The unreality of the claim that a mortal is the
true image of God is illustrated by the opposite natures of Spirit and matter,
Mind and body, for one is intelligence while the other is non-intelligence.”3
Every day
therefore we must prove ourselves in this armor of Love. Every day we must take
a stand for our God, put on this spiritual armor, and do battle with ourselves
and all of the false claims of the errors that come mentally to us to fall prey
to. We get to see this armor as important as any piece of clothing. It is for
our protection. It is the spiritual embrace of Love. It is a part of our daily
defense against the wiles of the devil.
If we see the
battle is between the spirit and the flesh, where the victor is on the side of
God, Spirit, how foolish it would be not to put on this armor of Love every
day.
“A voice from
heaven we have heard,
The call to rise
from earth;Put armor on, the sword now gird,
And for the fight go forth.
The foe in ambush claims our prize,
Then heed high heaven's call.
Obey the voice of Truth, arise,
And let not fear enthrall.
The cause requires unswerving might:
With God alone agree.
Then have no other aim than right;
End bondage, O be free.
Depart from sin, awake to love:
Your mission is to heal.
Then all of Truth you must approve,
And only know the real.”4
Gentle hugs
1 King James Version of The Holy Bible Ephesians 6 vss. 12-14
2 ibid II Corinthians 6
3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy page 285 lines 7-14
4 Christian Science Hymnal No. 5
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