Are there chinks in your armor?

Paul is one of my favorite biblical characters. His life and writings show us how we are to handle trials through our daily Christian walk. I particularly love the book of Ephesians.

I’m very thankful that we are in such a wonderful Sunday school class at our church. We have teachers who work diligently every week to help us think about our daily walk with God.

This week our lesson was focused on Ephesians 6. I know homeschoolers love to use this passage on the armor of God as a unit study for Bible lessons at home. It’s a great lesson for all ages.

I won't go into each part of the armor described in the passage. I'll leave that for those who feel moved to further study, but today, we need to make sure our armor is in tact, and that we didn't forget any of the pieces. Having lived in the Bible belt most of my life, I know that Christians are sometimes guilty of “grading” our sins. Maybe it’s Dante’s fault that our theology is less introspective. We’ve all been guilty (including myself) of pointing fingers at other people’s mistakes. Most Christians understand that errancy, and we remember that when we point a finger elsewhere, it leaves three more pointing back at ourselves.

As we put on the armor of God, we are guarding ourselves from attacks in the spiritual world. If we forget to put on one portion of our armor, we expose a weakness elsewhere. Sure, most of us aren’t guilty of murder, but failing to guard against our weaknesses easily exposes the chinks in our armor to Satan. We may be great at not lying, but our tendency to gossip or lose our temper may be our downfall. Pride is a big one.

As Christians we remember, “We aren’t perfect, but we’re forgiven.” God’s grace provides us that comfort. And in studying the traits we need to have in Ephesians 6, we can make sure that we are properly guarded so that we don’t ignore our own faults.

Are there chinks in your armor? Any areas in your life where you are especially vulnerable to sin?  I encourage you to read Ephesians 6:10-17, and may you be fully protected from outside attacks.