I want to expand on Dr. (Pastor) Vernon McGee’s explanation of the shield of faith. The Holy Spirit showed him how to use it to overcome severe doubts, the kind that plague all of us at times.
When he was young, Vernon McGee had a philosophy professor who asked many difficult questions McGee could not answer. The professor also taught things contrary to Scripture. McGee began to doubt the God he could not defend. Before McGee could abandon his faith, God showed McGee he could use the shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16b, “Hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil,”) to combat these doubts. McGee chose to not abandon God, even though he did not have answers to give the professor (or himself) at that time. With that “shield of faith,” McGee kept his faith in God anyway.
In its simplest form the shield of faith IS our faith. The shield is the strength our faith gives us to resist Satan’s lies, confusion, doubt and any other bad thoughts and disturbing emotions he uses to turn us from God. Even as a young college student, Vernon McGee simply trusted God enough to believe there must be an answer for the difficult questions he could not answer. McGee said he put up his shield (he trusted with faith in God), and Satan could not stop McGee’s faith. Over time, McGee did find answers to those harsh and negative questions and false theories the philosophy professor had presented.
I realized I had used this shield of faith when I was younger. I shared this experience in my post “Why We Praise God: Answers to Atheists Who say God is arrogant” when I could not explain why God asks us to praise him, yet this request is not an arrogant one. Atheists have accused God of arrogance. When they asked about this praise, I could not refute their clever words, even though I knew, in my faith, God is not arrogant. I could not think of how to “defend” God, yet I knew God had always been good to me, so I trusted him, even though I had no answer at that time. Yet, just like Pastor McGee, I did find an answer. I shared my answer in that post, so if you haven’t read it, look it up so you can see how God gave me the answer when I learned how to prayer-journal and analyze the Scripture on my own (instead of relying on theologians to analyze it for me.) In a different post I discussed this wonderful joy of prayer-journaling the way Pastor (Dr.) Charles Stanley taught me via his radio program. If you missed that post, it is called “Joy in Prayer Journaling.” Be sure to read it too. Prayer journaling has opened my eyes to many truths that I have not even found in my Bible Commentary (though I only own a simple two-volume Bible Commentary, not one of the multi-volume commentaries that discuss many Bible verses in greater depth.)
Studying the Bible and prayer-journaling definitely strengthen our faith! This has been true for mine. I already had a humble faith in God, but discovering answers in the Bible has shown me what I already believed was true. So let’s expand on this idea of the shield of faith. Like Dr. McGee and me, you can look back on God’s goodness in your life to strengthen your faith too. Even when doubts plague your mind, you can cling to God’s eternal love. You can look back on the many times when God has cared for you and saved you from worse dilemmas. Too often we look at our pain and believe it is worse than it is. Do we walk with a limp? Some people use their arms to propel their wheel chair and would love to walk with a limp. Some people cannot even use their arms (quadriplegics), yet they look at the horrors of innocent, young girls forced into sham marriages with nonbelievers (in far away countries) and also those sold into the sex trade, and they are thankful they do not live in those terrifying conditions. On a side note, always pray for the innocents, stolen into the sex trade, because some rescue organizations do work to get these gals out into freedom.
We might think our lives are so much harder than the lives of people who have wealth and power. Yet some of the wealthy people are miserable and even commit suicide, due to the lack of True Spiritual meaning in their lives.
God is crazy about us. His love has never left us. Yet difficult questions can still come to our minds (like the questions I heard people ask about why God demands praise and worship.) It must feel strange to cling to God when we don’t have all the answers. We are used to having all the answers or pretending we have them.
As such, this faith is very humbling. Jesus said we must receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, (Mark10:15, Matt.28:3 Luke8:17.) Jesus also said “Whoever then humbles himself like this little child, he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven,”(Matt.18:4.) It is humbling to admit we do not have all the correct answers about God and the Christian life. Yes, we study the Bible, ask other believers, read the work of theologians, and ask the Holy Spirit to show us the answers. But God does not give us an answer to every single question we ask. God did not tell Job why he suffered as he did, so horribly. Very young children know they don’t have all the answers. Not only do they not pretend to know everything, but they ask many questions and genuinely seek to know the truth. If they have normal, loving parents, they trust their parents and trust that their parents will care for them, even when they (the children) don’t know everything.
Yet our world pushes us to think we have to offer all the answers. Of course we don’t have all of those answers, and as a result, we can begin to doubt our faith the way the young Vernon McGee admitted he did while interacting with his forceful philosophy professor. Forceful people will come into our lives demanding we answer every question about God. Yet we cannot answer every question in a way that satisfies critics or even our own doubts, at least not right away for every question. Who can fully explain why horrors and tragedies occur? Why are innocent people abused and murdered? Why do some people die at much too young ages? Why do whole cities get decimated by extreme weather or war? How can we fully answer these questions? We do our best by reassuring ourselves and others of God’s love, but we do not have every answer the moment the questions arrive.
We must look for answers, but until they come, we can set aside those difficult and unanswered questions and instead ask ourselves many questions of the faith. Has God ever abandoned me? Never. Has God ever lied in the Scripture or in our lives? Never. Has God ever stopped loving us, truly loving us? We may claim he did not answer our questions or allowed us to suffer (surely he did so with Job), but did he truly stop loving us? Never. Has God ever committed evil? Again, some claim he caused evil by allowing Satan to hurt Job and even kill his children Job 1:12 “the Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’ Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.” In the next verses (13-19) Job learns all he owned is taken from him, and his 10 children are killed. But did God want this evil to occur? No. And God did not “cause” it? God did not cause the evil. These questions could go on and on, but they point to God’s goodness. When we search for answers but cannot immediately find them (for Dr. McGee and for me some answers did not come until years later—for Job some answers never came until he died), we still cling to our faith. Look at Job’s response to the horrors he suffered, Job 1: 20-21 “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” I do not promise we will all praise God after getting horrible news. I just want us to see that Job held onto his faith even when he did not understand God.
That is the shield of faith that Dr. McGee spoke of, the ability to trust God even when we do not have the answers, because God has been so faithful up to this point in our lives. Some people say God has banked enough trust in our lives (by providing for us for so many years) that we can take out a loan on that trust via our faith. However we use the terminology, (for now as the shield of faith), we can trust God even when we cannot understand him or answer our critics (or our own doubt.) I urge all of my readers, including those who have not yet placed their faith in Christ, to come to trust God this way. Hold onto your faith even when you do not have all the answers. Claim this promise of God, the shield of faith. Let’s look at the verse that mentions this shield again. The verses that introduce the armor begin with Ephesians 6:13, “Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will be standing firm.” Verse 15 says, “Hold up the shield of faith,” in the New Living Translation. It says “Take up the shield of faith,” in the NIV.
What I want to emphasize in verses 13-15 is the case of the verbs. This is written in the imperative—that means the “command” case. These verses are commands from God, not casual suggestions. We cannot live passively and assume that once we trust in Christ, we must never work. We read the Bible with sincere diligence. We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us. We can use Bible commentaries, study Bibles, and also study the Bible with other believers so we better understand what God is telling us. We study under wise and well-schooled leaders. We do not passively live as Christians. So taking up the faith is not like a new born baby who sits back and has mom bring the breast or bottle for the baby to feed on. We pursue the truth. Our faith, though like that of a child, is an active and working faith, the way children also ask questions and seek answers. The part that may feel passive is when we do not have answers, so we do rest (maybe even sit back) and then believe, strongly, but also in a spirit of rest. We rest at those times, because we cannot always fight for the answer and find it, at least not at first, perhaps not at all (as is true of Job’s suffering.) This trust and faith may seem like a paradox. In some ways it is very active and involves our hard work and fighting (spiritual warfare, not against humans.) But at other times this faith seems like a source of quiet resting, sitting back and not fighting. Both are sides of the Christian faith. We use the shield of our faith to block Satan’s attacks on our minds and hearts.
I pray this post has challenged yet also comforted you about this amazing shield of faith. I really liked Dr. McGee’s explanation of how he used his shield of faith. His words reminded me of how I had done so too, though at the time not knowing it was the shield of faith I used. We need to share our stories with others so we can encourage their faith. We may assume the truths God reveals to us are simple, like Dr. McGee’s explanation. But in fact, those revelations encourage others (as Dr. McGee’s words encouraged me.) We live this faith-walk as a family where we lift up the hurting and cheer on those who are feeling strong. So I pray I have lifted you up in your walk of faith. Please let me know if there are any ways I can pray for you. I read the comments people send me. Some send me advertising offers, and I may not answer those comments, but I will answer every sincere comment where you want to receive encouragement or offer it to me. Thanks so much for sharing with me in this blog.