My children drew the armor of God, and we discussed what each piece of armor meant. We also did exercises to grow in our ability to use each piece of armor.
The Armor of God
The armor of God can be found in Ephesians 6:10-18. These are the pieces mentioned:
- Belt of Truth
- Breastplate of Righteousness
- Sandals of Peace
- Shield of Faith
- Helmet of Salvation
- Sword of the Spirit
As the children drew the pieces of armor, we discussed what each one meant, and we practised implementing each piece for real in our lives. Let’s start with the Belt of Truth.
Belt of Truth
The only way to discern the truth is to study the Word of God. Our enemy is the great deceiver, and he uses half-truths and technical truths to lie. If you are rationalizing sin, for example, you are not dwelling on truth; instead, you are being deceived, and that deception will bite you by causing you to stumble and alienating you from God. All sin instantly separates you from God, and God does not forgive sin unless you repent. If you are saved, you don’t lose your salvation when you sin, but you have no fellowship with God and no ability to walk by the Spirit. You will not have peace and joy in your life.
Philippians 4:8 tells us to dwell on what is true. Do not go down rabbit trails in your mind to what is false or sinful. Keep your mind disciplined to dwell on truth and study truth. Truth conquers error.
Another deception that many people believe is that they are worthless. This causes them to spiral down in their minds to not accomplish anything for the Lord. If you need help in controlling your mind, I have a free audio for you here: Controlling your Mind. And if you struggle with depression, here is an article that can help: Fight Depression with Truth.
Breastplate of Righteousness
Righteousness is seeking after holiness, or getting rid of sin in your life. I often stop my children in the middle of sin, take them to a separate room, and describe the sin that they are committing. This way my kids can back up and see their sin for the ugliness that it is, and they can repent and turn from it and do what is right.
The more you get rid of sin in your life, the more the Holy Spirit will fill you. God cannot stand sin and is grieved deeply whenever we sin. This is why it is impossible to display the fruit of the Spirit in our lives (love, joy, peace) unless we are continually pursuing righteousness.
I Timothy 4:7 says to practice for the purpose of righteousness. That means we can deliberately practice how to act before we are presented with the same temptations where we normally sin. Come up with a plan for what we will do. For one of my sons, he feels anger whenever his sister is annoying. So what is his plan of escape when his sister provokes him again? Talk it through with your son, giving him a list of options for not sinning.
Feet Shod with the Gospel
We need to be prepared to defend our faith, and we need to be prepared to share the gospel. First of all, you should be ready to make a defense of your faith if anyone should ask you why you believe what you believe. If someone in a college class seems to present evidence that contradicts Scripture, how will you defend your faith? You must have a solid foundation in apologetics, which is the ability to defend your faith. Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh MacDowell is a set of two books that answers commonly posed questions with biblical answers. Creation vs. evolution materials are also helpful. Answers in Genesis and Intelligent Design are two places that have excellent materials to prove the existence of God based on creation. (For example, a single cell is so complicated that there is no way that it would create itself. This is why Romans 1 and 2 state clearly that all mankind knows that there is a Creator, and that people are without excuse when they turn away from God.)
You also need to be able to share your faith. My children paired up and practised sharing the gospel. I recorded my children sharing the gospel with each other in the video entitled “The Armor of God,” which is found in the Vault. Any child can share the gospel clearly, as you can see in the video. Practice until you are comfortable sharing the gospel.
Shield of Faith
Romans 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. Once you have faith, you can grow in your faith by studying the Word of God and through prayer. Studying the Word of God will teach you who God is, and you will trust Him more. But the greatest way I’ve grown in my faith is through prayer. Answered prayer has built my faith to a point that I know that God will grant certain requests because they are the will of God. Suddenly I had tons of power in prayer because I combined faith in the Word of God (that God’s Word is true) with aligning my will to God’s will. To know more about how to grow in your faith through prayer, I have tons of free audios and articles here: Prayer Audios and Articles.
Helmet of Salvation
Make sure that you are saved. If you have not put your trust in Christ, you won’t have the Holy Spirit living in you, enabling you to live the Christian life. It’s normal for God to transform your character in impossible ways. But if you haven’t trusted that Christ paid the penalty for your sin, and if you have no desire for Him to be Lord of your life, you will not be saved. Without a helmet, you will get hit in the head by the enemy and die.
The sad reality is that lots of so-called Christians blab some words and think they’re saved when they feel no remorse over sin in their lives. If you’re walking in overt sin in your life and you don’t care, you are not saved.
Sword of the Spirit
The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and it’s our only offensive weapon besides prayer, which is mentioned right after the armor. The Word of God pierces into sin or temptation, so you are able to resist sin with Scripture, just like Jesus did. We need to commit the Word of God to memory so that the Holy Spirit can bring it to mind to convict us of sin later. We should especially memorize Scripture in areas of weakness in our lives, so that we can conquer those sins. You can also write a verse on an index card and tape it to the mirror to remind you of it throughout the day.
Here is a craft you can do with your kids to symbolize the Sword of the Spirit:
Scripture memory and Sword drills are helpful exercises to do with your kids. You can speak the Word of God into an audio and play it back every day for easy memorization. You can also do Sword drills where your kids try to find their way around the Bible. They should memorize the books of the Bible and be able to know that Psalms is in the middle, for example. They should be able to find Matthew quickly, or Jude (go to Revelation and subtract a page). By knowing how to use the Sword of the Spirit, your children will have their sword sharp and ready for spiritual battle.
One of my children drew the armor of God as separate pieces instead of a warrior dressed in all the pieces of armor. He boiled each piece down to one word. I think he did a great job.
Ephesians 6:11 says to put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the enemy. Make sure to practice each of these pieces of armor to grow strong in each one.
If you would like to see the video that goes with this post, feel free to join the Unit Study Treasure Vault, which has a huge Bible section!
My kids drew a Hebrews Hall of Faith to commemorate the men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11. I came up with the idea of a hallway full of portraits. When my children chose a character from Hebrews 11 to draw, they needed to have something in the picture to demonstrate that character. For example, Abraham had a walking staff and had a wilderness behind him to signify that God called him out of the land of Ur to the Promised Land, even though he didn’t know where he was going.
Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain, knowing that the wages of sin was death. God told Cain to do what was right, and that sin was crouching at his door, but Cain killed his brother after being warned by God that his actions had been wrong. Abel had a stronger knowledge of God.
Noah believed that God would send a flood even though there had never been rain before. He built an ark out of obedience to God because he had faith.
By faith Rahab trusted in the Lord and ended up being saved because the spies protected her family after she hid them. She knew that the Lord was God, and she became a Jew and lived among the Jews for the rest of her life as a result.
