Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” -1 Corinthians 1:31 (NIV)
My soul will boast in the LORD; let the oppressed hear and rejoice. -Psalm 34:2 (NIV)

Over the 45 years I’ve walked this planet, I’ve had my highs and lows, just like everyone else. But for the first 40 years, I didn’t know I was blindly walking through a spiritual battlefield. I can see now that it was only God’s grace that saved me so many times from stepping on mines.

I didn’t know I was getting perforated with hostile fire. I didn’t know why I despaired, no matter how well or poorly I was doing in worldly terms. I didn’t know why life felt so pointless and empty, no matter what world view I tried to adopt. I didn’t know why my life felt wrong, despite living in a world that said good and evil are yours to define.

The One Way I avoided was the only way

But because I was a worldly sleepwalker, there was One whose Way I avoided, because the world hates Him. I believed that anything but Jesus must be the way…but every path I chose led to dead ends.

As readers of this blog know, the wool was pulled off my eyes. I awoke to see the world as it truly was, like Neo did in The Matrix. It was almost too much to process, because the world I knew for 40 years was completely false, setting me against the truth by painting it as falsehood!

In a world where we celebrate epic battles between good and evil in movies, then walk around in a world where we only celebrate humankind and its material accomplishments, I learned we were blinding ourselves to the true epic battle that really takes place all around us.

Your armor, good knight!

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. -Ephesians 6:13 (NIV)

After the initial weeks of shock, I voraciously read and learned about a suit of spiritual armor given to believers. It would protect us on a daily basis, but we had to consciously keep it attached, or it could easily slip off and we’d be vulnerable again. For me, it helped to imagine it as invisible Iron Man armor, including sensors (discernment) to see through lies and falsehoods I didn’t even notice before.

The armor also reminded me of the footing and moral compass I never had before, and a narrow but clear path to take in this world—a path that would lead to the next world. I also became empowered to live and walk in faith, with bottomless joy and grace, as long as I would not let myself block access to them. And I learned I could pray rails of faith through my life for the train of God’s power to charge through, to His glory. As surely as I blink, I believe.

Now, I’m bulletproof. The hostile fire is still there, but I’m no longer walking through it unprotected. And, finally, I’m living life, rather than surviving meaninglessly and waiting for death. If you’re tired of getting shot down in life, maybe you’d like to end that cycle and suit up…and be bulletproof, too. Come this way.

Today’s soundtrack

Citizen Way’s “Bulletproof” perfectly describes how God’s armor helps us face the spiritual attacks we didn’t even know we were under till we were saved.