Whose Armor are You Wearing?

Whose Armor are You Wearing?
Missy Grant

Let’s just get this off my chest right now….I have to sit down and write this blog entry and I don’t want to. I don’t want to talk about fruit of the vine, and ‘just sprout where God plants you’, and ‘all things work together for God’s purposes’….. I’m in a mood. Because of that mood I almost intentionally ate an entire box of these……today.

(as if I would unintentionally do that!) It doesn’t help the waist line, but my oh my….it did give me a sugar buzz (No, I don’t do coffee) and once I stopped coughing from the powder sugar I accidentally inhaled, life seemed a little brighter. Then again, maybe it was just the sunlight filtering through the powdered sugar which was floating in my kitchen. Not sure…Ever felt like this? I am thinking so, otherwise the Hostess company would not be doing such high volume of sales. Now, that all being said, I now have to pray and confess a few things to the Lord. Be right back…..

OK…In all seriousness I asked the Lord to forgive for my lack of faith, my lack of trust, and my lack of belief in the promises of scripture. He is worthy of our praise, not because we came to Him, but because He first loved us!

I want to share a story with you. This story comes from 1 Samuel 17 starting with verse 20. (hang in there…this is long, but hey…it is Saturday)

“20 Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.

25 Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel."

26 David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."

28 When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."

29 "Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?" 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."

33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
"I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"

45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.”

I want to talk about the section where King Saul gives David his personal armor (v 20). Do you find that portion of scripture intriguing? I do. This young man putting on the Kings Armor (which didn’t fit) and the young David basically saying, “Um….this doesn’t work for me. I can’t move in this. Truthfully, Saul, this really isn’t my style.” I read something recently written by Norris Smith which said, “Our attempts to copy somebody else is like ‘wearing Saul’s Armor.”

Have you been trying to wear someone else’s armor lately? Doesn’t fit so well, does it? A little long here, a little tight there, a little heavy. Armor was made specifically for the body that was to wear it. No hand me downs. Psalm 139 talks deeply about how the Lord knows you. He has made armor just for you. You will find the explanation in these verses from Ephesians 6:10-11, 14-17 which says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” “Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

OK….I think that is much better advice than eating a box of donuts. The trappings of this earthly life will constantly pull at your carnal desire to wear someone else’s armor. Try and remember these thoughts the next time you are stirred to do just that….1. It won’t fit, it belongs to someone else. 2. God created armor just for you, go and find it (in His word and praying with a friend). 3. Thank the Lord for putting on the 'armor of sin' and wearing it on our behalf so we didn't have to.

Lord Almighty, you are the only armor I desire to wear - to image forth your glory and not those around me. I confess I can easily pick up someone else’s armor and try it on for awhile. In doing so I am forgoing my trust and faith in you. Help me take off any armor not built for me and only put on the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. Praising you today, Lord. Amen