Jesus, You are not slow in keeping Your promise, as some understand slowness. You are patient with me, not wanting me to perish, but to come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9). Thank You for being willing to wait on me to start learning how to handle the shield of faith. However, while I am delaying this training, I am suffering from attack after attack of Satan. All during this time I can wonder why You aren’t doing something about all these things Satan is doing to me. Help me realize that I am not waiting on You; You are waiting on me.

Jesus, since I, as one of Your children have flesh and blood, You too shared in my humanity SO THAT by Your death You might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil (Heb 2:14). Since You have already provided everything I need, help me realize that You are waiting for me to start taking advantage of Your provisions. Thank You for sending various mature Christians who try to help me get started in the things of God. Help me respond right away rather than waiting for quite a while. Show me that if I wait, I will suffer and be defeated by a foe who has been defeated by You. I will lose battles that I could have won, had I taken advantage of all Your provisions. Teach me how to use the shield of faith.

Jesus, the weapons I fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Cor 10:4). I am glad Satan couldn’t kill me as a weak Christian because I was protected by the grace (benefits I don’t deserve) and mercy (deliverance from the punishments I deserve) of God; but, he was able to make me miserable. He has been doing everything he can to destroy all the people God will allow him to devour. Protect me by helping me start using my shield of faith.

Jesus, help me be self-controlled and alert. My enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Teach me and empower me to resist him, standing firm in the faith, because I know that my brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (1 Pet 5:8-9). For me to be self-controlled and alert is my first assignment from You before I am attacked by the devil. Prior to me being attacked, help me allow You to bring me under Your control. Self-control sounds like self controlling self; but, teach me that it is actually You bringing myself under Your control. Then, the next part of my assignment is to stay alert. Help me KNOW when I am being attacked by Satan.

Jesus, I am to resist Satan, standing firm in the faith; that is my next assignment. Empower me to not just stand there and be mauled. It is true that great persecution comes from me proclaiming the gospel. There are people who are going to do everything they can to keep me from helping hurting people. But, it is not true that I must yield to Satan’s temptations and messages of emotional doom. It is not true that I have to be taken down spiritually, financially, relationally, or health wise. Help me use my shield of faith to keep these things from happening.

Jesus, help me submit myself, then, to God. Then empower me to resist the devil, and he will flee from me (James 4:7). Satan knows I can’t do the ministry of helping desperate people, if I am spiritually or physically too sick or don’t have resources to help them. Teach me that the sufferings that 1 Peter 5:8-9 above is talking about are persecutions and satanic resistance. Help me realize that it isn’t talking about spiritual defeat through disease and temptations.

When I suffer because I’m not using the full armor of God, I am allowing Satan to steal from me my Christian example and ministry (serving people). I am allowing him to keep me from living a Christian life that represents You to a lost and dying world. You suffered persecution from people; but, You didn’t suffer spiritual, financial, relational, emotional, or physical defeat. You were victorious over these issues to such a degree that You were able to complete every bit of the assignment the Father gave You. Help me use my shield of faith so I can resist the devil in the same manner. Help me join You through submission so Your power will flow through me against Satan.

Jesus, the reason Your Father loves You is that You lay down Your life--only to take it up again. No one took it from You, but You laid it down of Your own accord. You had the authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command You received from Your Father (John 10:17-18). Help me lay my life down for You and for needy people. Help me not use my shield of faith to keep me from laying it down. Teach me when to use it and when not to. It wasn’t until the cross that You were stripped of Your relational, emotional, financial, and physical things; but, that only happened because You allowed it to happen. Teach me that premature suffering and destruction of my Christian living and ministry of helping people is caused by a major neglect of using the shield of faith provided by You through salvation.

Jesus, in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith (Rom 1:17).” Teach me that righteousness is a life that starts and continues to treat people good. Show me that it helps and blesses people with the good things of God. Help me use my shield of faith in such a way that I live a life of righteousness in the way I treat people.

Jesus, teach me that through salvation and justification, God has credited righteousness to my record; through them it is as if I am already only doing good things to myself, to those around me, and to God’s plan. The way I got that righteousness was by putting my faith in Your provisions of salvation and justification. Help me believe that my temporary Christian life on earth started by faith and my eternal life in eternity is fulfilled in God’s eternal Kingdom by faith. Every day of my life must be lived by faith. My first exercise of faith is at salvation. And, now I am being asked to use it to start living the VICTORIOUS Christian life. Help me to use my shield of faith to accomplish this assignment.

Jesus, it is by grace I have been saved, through faith--and this not from myself, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8-9). Since I couldn’t save myself, I am not going to be able to live the life of salvation power by myself. My shield of faith is going to have to be used every step of the way. Teach me how to be skillful in the use of my shield of faith.

Jesus, I am God’s workmanship, created in You to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do (Eph 2:10). Teach me that my human effort is my major problem; it can keep me from taking advantage of this powerful shield of faith. Show me that it is either going to be a faith, dependency, reliance, and trust in You or a faith, dependency, reliance, and trust in myself. The Christian life moves right into a way of constant defeat if I drop the shield of faith because of human effort.

Jesus, I am being CONFIDENT of this, that You Who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until Your day (Phil 1:6). Where do I go after I become a Christian? That truth is going to decide what kind of Christian life I am going to be living. Help me be willing to live a life of faith rather than a life of self-dependency. If I live by faith, I will experience one victory after another. But, If I live the Christian life in self-dependency, I will experience one defeat after another. Teach me that if my life, after salvation, can be lived the same whether I am a Christian or not, that is my indication that I am using human techniques, power, systems, and procedures. Keep me from coming to God for salvation and then looking to myself or the world systems for how to live the Christian life.