Nurture your faith

We’re told that God will protect us, provide for us, and guide us, but that doesn’t mean we can just sit back and do nothing, hoping that God will hand everything to us with no effort on our part. Paul said God gives each of us ‘a measure of faith’. Jude said we develop spiritually by ‘building [ourselves] up on [our] most holy faith’ (Jude v.20 NIV). Faith under attack is just faith under construction. The battles of life that we’ll have to face will be the times when it really shows whether we’ve nurtured faith or neglected faith. In Bible times, many Roman soldiers used a scutum, a shield that protected them from head to toe. It was made of wood and upholstered with thick layers of canvas and leather. Its curved shape meant the flaming arrows of the enemy would glance off and fizzle out before they could harm the soldier. That sheds some light on what Paul meant when he said: ‘Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one’ (Ephesians 6:16 NIV). Satan’s arrows can’t penetrate our hearts when they’re pure, saturated in Scripture, and fortified by faith. That’s why Jesus told Peter, ‘Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail’ (Luke 22:31-32 NKJV). It’s our faith that’s under attack! It’s our faith that needs to be fed! It’s our faith that sustains us during life’s battles and challenges! Jesus told us to ‘have faith in God’ (Mark 11:22 KJV). It’s the time we spend with God in prayer and reading His Word that strengthens our faith to win life’s battles.