Jesus, empower me to live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). As a Christian, I shall live by faith or I will live by the dictates of my body, the world, or the devil; I choose. If my Christian life is lived by the desires of my body, the pleasures of the world, or the temptations of the devil, it makes me think that things got worse after salvation. Help me pick up my shield of faith and start extinguishing the flaming arrows of the devil; let me start living a superior life after salvation. If I don’t start using the shield of faith, I get defeated in both worlds. It makes me feel guilty when I do things in the world of sin; but, sometimes I don’t know how to be victorious in the world of God. Teach me how to live the victorious life in Christianity.

Jesus, I have been set free from sin and have become a slave to righteousness. Thank You for putting this in human terms because I am weak in my natural self. JUST AS I used to offer the parts of my body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, SO NOW empower me to offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When I was a slave to sin, I was free from the control of righteousness. But, what benefit did I reap at that time from the things I am now ashamed of? Those things result in death (Rom 6:18-21)! Help me use my shield of faith to keep these things out of my life. Help me offer the parts of my body to righteousness.

Since, salvation brought me into a world where I can be a slave of righteousness (the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23) and free from the control of sin (the works of the body in Galatians 5:19-21), empower me to use my shield of faith to ward of the control of sin. Because I’m not properly using my shield of faith, I continue to live in a world where I am controlled by deeds against myself and others and free from righteousness (good deeds to myself and others). Help me become skilled in the use of my shield of faith so this will no longer happen to me.

Jesus, I cry out to You: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death (Rom 7:24)? I now have the right to fight sin (bad deeds) and live righteousness (good deeds); but frequently I don’t. I no longer enjoy sin (hurting myself, other people, and God’s plan) but I sin (hurt them) anyway. This brings a certain amount of misery into my Christian life. This is because I still sin and hurt myself, others, and God’s plan; and, I still fail to do righteous things that would bless me, others, and God’s plan.

Jesus, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (Rom 7:15). As I make the transition into the wonderful life in You, Jesus, I start out being very miserable because I can’t go back to enjoying the sins I am committing. But, I don’t YET know how to start enjoying the righteousness I am supposed to be living. As a sinner, I enjoyed sinning; and, I hated doing righteous things that God wanted me doing. Now, thanks to You and Your salvation, I hate sin and want to live a righteous life in my relationships; but, I lack the knowledge of how. Sometimes, this struggle causes me to look back on my life of sin with a certain amount of reminiscence. But, then I feel guilty for this moment of indiscretion. Teach me about this kind of life the Bible is talking about in Romans 7:15-24. Help me realize that all it is saying is, it is now time to get up and fight!

Jesus, since my shield of faith is made up of what I believe, help me get my faith from You and the Bible. When God’s Word says one thing; and I sometimes believe something else, this hurts the quality of my shield of faith. When this happens, my shield of faith is down. From that moment on, the fiery arrows of Satan are making it through to my breastplate of righteousness. I am experiencing things that are different from what the Bible says. The Word is describing a type of life I am to be living that is different from what I am experiencing. It says I am more than conquerors in You and I am experiencing defeat. Help me decide WHAT I AM GOING TO BELIEVE. Since what I believe decides whether or not I move my shield of faith over that area of my life or not, teach me Your Word. And, since the shield of faith is mobile, help me decide where to put it.

Jesus, in all these things I am more than conquerors through You Who loved me (Rom 8:37). I can now move the shield of faith over my life and believe that I am more than conquerors in You; or I can drop it by me not believing that I am more than conquerors in You. Help me believe God’s Word to ward off a lie of Satan concerning a certain area of truth. Help me cover that area with the shield of faith. Show me that, that keeps the fiery arrows of Satan from hitting me in the breastplate of righteousness and causing me to suffer its effects. Teach me that the shield of faith is able to put out the fiery arrow; but, the breastplate of righteousness can’t put it out. Help me realize that what I believe decides what my shield of faith is covering and what area of my spiritual being it is exposed.

Jesus, empower me to study to show myself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15 AKJV). The next thing I need to consider is that the shield of faith can be made larger. Help me have a big shield of faith.

• As I learn more about God’s truth,
• As I decide to believe those truths,
• And as I pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to make those truths real,

that will then cause me to have my shield covering more areas of my life SIMULTANEOUSLY. But, no matter how big my shield of faith is enlarged, through faith in more and more of God’s Word, it still has to be held in place. Help me KEEP believing that God’s Word is true all the time.

Jesus, when I ask, I must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. I should not think I will receive anything from You; I am a double-minded man, unstable in all I do (James 1:6-8). Give me a consistent shield of faith that is always in place.

Teach me that the shield of faith can be used very effectively one minute and then lowered or put down the next. Make this big issue of persistence clear to me. I must believe God’s truths all the time. I must believe when it looks like the Bible is working for me and when it looks like it isn’t working for me. I must believe on the convenient days and on the difficult days. I must believe those things that are easy to believe and those that are hard. There is never a time when I don’t need my shield of faith up in position.

Jesus, holding the shield of faith in position can be a problem. There are so many Scriptures and Biblical promises I need to learn. I may not be able to know them all; but, help me always realize that the more I know the better. Even though it isn’t likely that I will ever know them all, I still need as many as I can learn and use. Help me not let the magnitude of all God’s great promises discourage me. Help me be patient with my spiritual growth. Help me know that the more truths I know and learn how to use, the more areas of my life will be covered by the shield of faith. And, the more areas of my life are covered by the shield of faith, the more victories I will eventually experience.

Jesus, get me ready to take a look at the materials that make up the shield of faith. The materials that make up the shield of faith give me the clue as to how to position it.