Armor

A guy in Sunday school this morning made a comment that has stuck in my mind for the day and will probably radiate there until the end of the week. His comment was…“Armor is armor, whether it’s polished or dingy and beaten.”I don’t know when I have time to process these things but it seems like I do it constantly.

I’m constantly going…I thought about this or that today…but I have no idea when that actually happened. Armor is armor…powerful…anyone can read the last chapter of Ephesians and learn a spiritual explanation of armor… but what about physical armor…Like the kind of armor they wore back in the day. What a knight might wear as he went into battle. Usually a hard metal exterior that almost always took a hard hit.

Today, I had a momentary revelation…it’s still armor “whether it’s polished or dingy and beaten.” Can you imagine going into battle without any covering? Protection? Whether you had brand new armor that you could see your reflection in…or armor that is smudged, dirty, dented, scratched, and beaten…armor is still armor. No one goes to battle without armor…that’s dumb. The FBI doesn’t even do anything without a bulletproof vest…that’s simple wisdom when thinking about adverse situations that they might encounter.What does your spiritual armor look like? Have you been through any battles? Fought the good fight? Do you have new armor? Maybe your armor has a crack and your reinforcing it? Regardless if you have new armor or old, beaten armor…armor is still armor…Who do you have to go into battle with you when it approaches? Do you trust them because you have to trust them or because you naturally trust them? What does their armor look like?

My immediate thought is when I go into battle, I want someone at my side who has the beaten armor…someone who has weathered battles and storms and has come through at the Lord’s side. It’s not my natural instinct to have someone who has perfectly polished armor to enter into a battle. But once upon a time, I had perfectly polished armor and I entered the battle. My armor today may be bent, dirty, dingy and scraped….but it’s still armor…and I still pick it up and put it on…even when it’s seem too heavy to get over my head. When that’s the case, sometimes others help you put it on and even at times…help you stand up…and at other times…enter the battle with you. So, really, each battle outcome only depends on whether we choose to put on the armor. The outcome has already been determined because of the blood that’s been shed. We put the armor on…we fight the good fight…and when we can do nothing else…we stand. When it's all over, we'll all head home together to celebrate... no one left behind... and we'll have a great party.