Ephesians 6:10 - 24  " Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might."   In order to walk the worthy walk, to love and to serve, to submit and obey, and to please the Lord.. we must have His help.  Paul tells us to "be strong".  We are weak and we know it.   But we need to increase in power, and that power is found in the Lord.  It is strength found in His "might",  His great might and dominion.  Our God is omnipotent.  Tozer says,

 " Omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God whom we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all who believe on Him to life eternal. The worshiping man finds this knowledge a source of wonderful strength for his inner life. His faith rises to take the great leap upward into the fellowship of Him who can do whatever He wills to do, for whom nothing is hard or difficult because He possesses power absolute." 

 It is our faith in the limitless God, who has the power to do whatever He wills to do... that Paul encourages and commands us to walk in.. for there is no other way.  How do we do this?  We must 

"put on the full armor of God".   The armor of God is the key to enable us to "stand firm against the schemes of the devil" and "to resist in the evil day".  To stand firm is to stay upright.  To not surrender or bow or fall to the trickery of our enemy or to our own struggles with wickedness.  God's strength has been given to us, his power released in us, so that we can succeed... 

God's power, that gives us strength to keep standing is released in His Truth.  We need to gird our loins - to  fasten Truth around ourselves like a belt.  Jesus tells us that He, Himself is the Truth.  We are to surround ourselves with that which is True.  Peter says in I Peter 1:13 that we are to "gird your minds".  We need to God's Truth in us, every day, so that we can stand firm.   Jesus calls Satan the father of lies, the deceiver.  We know that he ( Satan) is like a roaring lion, seeking those that he can destroy.  He deceived Eve in the garden and he seeks to deceive us in the same way.  He uses trickery, he lies in wait for us, seeking a foot hold, an open door, so he can come and destroy us.  Our first and primary weapon of defense is God's Truth.  We must know Him and continue to grow in our knowledge of Him through His Word and through the Spirit Who lives in us.  This is the way to keep standing firm...

The second thing that we must take up is "righteousness".  Isaiah wrote this, (59:16-17)  "and He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness upheld Him. And He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle."   We are not able to stand firm with self-righteous rags.  We must have the Righteousness of God Himself.  It is the breastplate belonging to our Redeemer, His righteousness, that we must put on. It is Jesus Christ the Lord Who gives us His righteousness and we must receive it by faith in Him alone. 

As we stand in God's truth and are clothed in His righteousness, we are ready to put on our shoes.  But these shoes are special.  They are shoes that prepare us to speak "peace".   Again, Paul looks to Isaiah's writing, " How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, 'Your God reigns'" ( 52:7).  We are putting on armor, but we stand up on shoes of peace.  Our message is good news.  God reigns!  His kingdom is brings quietness and rest - peace! Not war!

We must know the Truth in order to know what righteousness really is and we must accept His righteousness for ourselves before we have good news for others.  We must take "up the shield of faith" to "extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one".   Psalm 120:3b-4 says ".... you deceitful tongue... Sharp arrows of the warrior, with the burning coals of the broom tree..."   Again, this reminds us that our enemy is the Liar, who wants to deceive us.  Our faith... in God's Truth and His righteousness, in Christ our Lord... is the very instrument that extinguishes the lies of Satan. 

The helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, God's Word, complete the armor.  We put them on through prayer.. "all prayer and petition"  praying at all times, in the Spirit.  Alert prayer.  Persevering prayer.  Personal prayer.  Power-filled, strengthening prayer.  In the Name of Jesus, who is the Truth, who is our righteousness, and who has given us true peace, so that we might stand firm, becoming strong in His might.  

Father, thank You. Fill our hearts with Your grace and fill our minds with Your Truth. Clothe us with the righteousness of Your beloved Son. Strengthen us with Your unlimited power so that we can keep standing firm.  Amen.