Armor of God: Helmet of Salvation by Claudia Hines
There are days when I do not feel close to God. Yesterday was one of those days. Abba Father felt far away and distant. Thoughts of worry and doubt swirled around in my mind and I found myself dwelling on all the things that were going wrong in my life. I had no peace or joy.
As I sat in my car, with tears in my eyes, I turned on the Christian radio station and began singing along to the worship songs that were playing. Slowly, the heaviness in my heart begin to lift and I could feel something shift in my heart. I became calmer and started praying and talking to Abba Father God. I could feel peace slowly return, and I felt connected to my Father once more.
The enemy wants to keep us separated from fellowship with God. He wants us to feel distant, distracted, fearful, offended, full of doubt and spiritually exhausted. He wants our minds to be so overwhelmed that we stop praying and talking to God.
This is not a new tactic of the enemy. It started in the Garden of Eden. Sin did not begin when Eve ate the fruit, it began when the serpent planted doubt and lies in her mind about what God had said. The thought came first, then disobedience followed.
This morning, before leaving the house for work, I stopped and took time to pray and talk to God. I started to think about the Helmet of Salvation that is mentioned in Ephesians 6. The helmet is there to protect our thoughts and mind. When we don’t have it on, we leave ourselves exposed to the enemy’s fiery darts which come as doubt, fear, temptation, discouragement and lies.
How often do we unknowingly leave off the Helmet of Salvation? Sometimes this happens when we allow worry, doubt and fear to run rampant through our minds. Or when we replay offenses, stay immobilized by fear, and constantly dwell on bad things that might happen to us in the future. These thoughts all leave room for the enemy.
The enemy attacks the mind because he knows that our thoughts shape and influence our actions. If he can influence our thought life, he can slowly shift the direction our lives go in. The words and actions we say will come from a place of fear and doubt.
That is why it is so important to guard our minds.
“…because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5, CJB)
Some days I find myself constantly having to cast out wrong thoughts and replace them with Godly thoughts.
I have to stop and remind myself:
these thoughts are not mine,
and they are not God’s thoughts either,
I will not agree with them.
The world is constantly pressing in around us. Everywhere we turn there is anger, immorality, pride, bitterness, gossip, fear, and ungodly behavior. It is easy to become influenced by what surrounds us.
It is easy to swim downstream with everyone else and simply follow the flow of the world without questioning where it is leading us. But God calls us to live differently. God calls His people to swim upstream, against the flow. We are to be in the world, but not of it. That does not mean to isolate ourselves from others.
Jesus was constantly among the people ministering to them. He saw their burdens, sickness, sin and their pain. Yet there were times when Jesus would withdraw from the crowd and spend time alone in prayer with His Father.
If the Messiah needed continual fellowship with the Father, how much more do we need to be praying and talking with our Father?
We cannot stay spiritually strong while neglecting fellowship with God. We are not to be conformed to this world. We renew our minds when we spend time in His Word and in prayer. When we stay close to the Father then the Helmet of Salvation is securely on our heads protecting us.
Prayers are not meant to be limited to just a few moments a day. Scripture tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). God wants us to be continually be in fellowship with Him. Quiet conversations with our Abba Father all during the day keep our heart anchored in Him and we can resist the enemy when he tries to pull us away.
Satan throws darts as us every day. He loves leading us into internal conversations that cause us to spiral into confusion and hopelessness. It is easy to become fearful, let our minds go down different rabbit trails, and spend time dwelling on things we can’t control. These thoughts lead to days where we feel distant from God, tired, worn out, or emotionally drained. Putting on the Helmet of Salvation, through worship and prayer, helps us stand strong and courageous as we navigate our lives.
As children of God, we have not been left alone and defenseless. The Helmet of Salvation protects our identity in Christ. It reminds us that we are redeemed, forgiven, chosen and no longer prisoners to fear, condemnation, or the enemy’s lies.
Through Christ we are no longer under the authority of darkness. Take time every day to put on the Armor of God.
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