Is it Gods will for me to be lonely?

 Be free! Ok. What does that look like? Maybe like the photo above?

We’ll look into that next. 

So. Who’s heard of the “shield of faith?” How many of you have been told to “take it up?” I have. Philippians talks about our “armor “. I've heard it over and over again. People actually depicted it as physically putting on a shield and the Armor of God, but I just couldn’t picture it until today 

I thought a shield was a defense weapon. You know, to prevent you from incoming fire.

That is true, but what do those darts look like? I mean, wouldn't darts be pretty obvious?  The scriptures say to "quench the fiery darts." 

I try to take a different look at scriptures because the reality of them and the "magic, hocus pocus" we've all been taught are so white washed, I just couldn't apply it to my life. It made great "Fairy Tale sense". You know, the knight raises the shield, combats that arrows, puts the shield down and walks away with the girl and they live happily ever after. 

The Bible says that our weapons are not flesh and blood, So, the illustration of putting on physical clothes was not adequate to teach me how to use these "weapons."

The Shield of faith is a defense weapon. Each weapon mentioned in Ephesians chapter 6 has a different person. Not knowing what they are, what they are used for....It's confusing.

So, I'm just looking at that shield. What flies at me every day?  Words....either my own thoughts or the words of someone else. If someone were to say to me, "You don't know how to fly a plane"...Would that be a fiery dart? No...why? Because I already know I can't fly a plane.

What if someone says to me "you aren't a good mother!" Here's what I've done in the past. I hope you can relate. I look at that dart, I take it apart to see if it's true, if I believe it's true...guess what? I've been hit!

The shield of faith must be built as a foundation for your belief system. The church has been so shallow in this subject and related it only to spiritual principles. If a fiery dart came to me and said, "You don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior!" I would laugh. It's too obvious that it's a lie. If it weren't for Jesus...well, there's too much information to be discussed on that subject to tell anyone how or why I know Jesus is Lord over my life.. It's personal and I know that I know that I know.

Let's try another one. "You are a failure!" Do I take that dart apart and see if there is any truth in it, or do I hold that shield up and with faith and say "I'm not finished yet! How do you know!" The shield of faith is actually made up of what you will choose to believe and what you know is not true. 

Did that phrase “what you know is not true?”.  Those words are a key. Do I accept as truth something I know is a lie? I don’t feel any temptation to give any credence to a lie. Why waste my time on it?

If I know what is true, do I question it? No, why waist my time fighting the truth? Again, why waste time on that?

A fiery dart is something that you do not know whether it is truth or a lie. 

If I told you that you were alone and that meant you would always be alone. Would you consider it? I have considered that very thought in the past. All of the evidence that surrounded me at that time was enough to “consider” whether those words were “truth”. I spect a lot of time considering those words. I didn’t have faith to rise above the loneliness.  I set the shield of faith aside and was struck by that thought. It took me away from seeing the future. 

I’ve heard people say, over and over again, with Jesus you are never alone. Jesus is all you need. 

The people that said those words were not suffering from loneliness.  Their lives were full. They could not comprehend the battle I was facing. 

I looked at the way God himself deals with loneliness (this may be a rabbit trail). He created Adam. He walked with Adam. Yet, he came to the conclusion that it was not good that man be alone. Wasn’t Gods presence enough for Adam?  The scripture continues in Genesis to say that God put man to sleep and made him a “helpmate “ using his own body. 

God made Eve from Adams own body. Adam needed skin to relate to. He needed someone like himself to fulfill his life. 

Jesus did not walk on this earth lonely. He had 12 disciples and out of those 12 he had 3 close friends. So, if Jesus is God, God walked in and through Jesus and was a part of who Jesus was (is) why did he need friends. This perspective gave me hope to quench the fiery dart of loneliness that others told me was acceptable. So, I challenged that thought. I went to God and asked, “where do I find people to fill the void loneliness has left in my life?”  I quenched (spoke truth to) that fiery dart and allowed the Lord to show me where to go. It took time and i spent time being lonely with faith that I wouldn’t be lonely forever.

What attack on your spirit, soul or body are you taking apart to see if it’s truth? That’s the definition of a “fiery dart”. That dart hurts and it is a waste of time to dwell on it. The question I faced could have caused me to reject the people He was bringing into my life and kept me lonely because I deemed those words as truth. 

Don’t ignore the fiery darts that bring questions to your mind. Put your shied of faith up by asking God to reveal the truth .

Do not put your shield down, sit in a corner somewhere and let more darts hit you while you “determine the truth”. Hold onto the truth you know, recognize the lies you know and pray about what you do not know.  Doing this keeps you “in the game “ and gives God the opportunity to show you the truth. 

Find freedom in rhe midst of uncertainty.  Hold tight to the truth, recognize the lies and let God show you the answer to the questions in you that cause you to consider the part you aren’t sure you have the answer to. Keep that shield of and put on the shield of “faith,” expecting God to show you what you should do about the thoughts thst challenge your identity and rob you of the freedom God wants for you. 

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:30-31) KJV. “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:32).