Are You Ready?

 As we celebrate this Christmas season, people are getting ready to celebrate. The decorations are up. The shopping has been finished. The gifts are all wrapped and ready to give. The dinner is being prepared and ready to eat soon. It sounds like you're ready for the holidays! Then you may be on the other side of it thinking to yourself, I have not done any of that or I've started, but I haven't finished. You may be thinking, "I'm definitely not ready!" I'm going to say it's okay to be either group. 2020 has been a rough year. In the midst of a pandemic, the fact that we are still here is a reason to celebrate all by itself! Not only are we still here, but many of us experienced personal situations that were very hard and heartbreaking. None of us could have ever imagined all the things that has happened in 2020, but we still have a choice in how we respond to what happens. We can ready ourselves every day by putting on some armor. You thought soldiers were the only ones who wore armor?! Not so!! Just like soldiers have to protect themselves in a battle, we as believers have to protect ourselves also. We are in a battle every day against the evil going on around us. But we can be ready when it comes our way by having our armor on. You first need to accept Jesus into your life if you haven't done so and begin to live out the Word of God (Romans 10:9-11, John 3:16, James 1:22). As we look at Ephesians 6:10, it tells us to be strong in the Lord, put on the whole armor and take our stand against evil spirits. We need God to help us all the way! Note that it also said the whole armor needs to be on. We're not ready if the whole armor isn't on. If something is missing, we are not fully protected. I don't know about you, but I want full protection! As we read further in Ephesians 6:14-17, it tells us how we are to protect ourselves fully. Let's first look at the helmet of salvation found in verse 17. The helmet protects our head. Our head is where our mind and thoughts come from. The thoughts that come from our mind need to remind us that we are saved and we belong to God. They need to uplift us and not bring us down. Thoughts lead to action, so we have to make sure we are protecting our mind constantly. This is a constant area of discipline for me and may be for you too. Then, in verse 14, it talks about the belt of truth. We need to speak and live out the truths of God's Word daily. We will be presented with things that are not truth and we need to be ready to counteract with the truth. Also in verse 14, the breastplate of righteousness is talked about. The breastplate covers the chest and heart. Living righteous means being right with God and doing our best to please Him at all times. We cannot let just anyone or anything near our heart. We have to protect it from negativity, bitterness, selfishness, pride and so forth. We need to learn to build a fence around our heart, not a wall. The fence allows one to come in and out as God allows, where the wall doesn't let anything in. There are good things we need to let in and we need to ask God to help us to know what. Next, let's look at the shield of faith in verse 16. Faith is believing what God says and not letting the circumstances get you off track (2020 has been a faith builder for sure!!). The shield can bounce back those arrows of doubt and confusion the enemy tries to bring our way. Comparison, competition and worry don't have to stay in our life as we can be ready with our shield of faith. In verse 17, the sword of the Spirit is talked about. We need to spend time in the Word and put it into practice. We need to practice memorizing verses so we can think about and speak on them through our day. We may not have a physical copy of the Bible with us everywhere we go, but if the Word is in our heart, it is ready to rise up in us and to walk out. Lastly, there is the gospel shoes of peace found in verse 15. The gospel is the good news, not gossip. Shoes are worn on our feet as we go from one place to another. What are you spreading this holiday season? In all seasons? Wherever we go, we should be spreading God's peace and love. We should be going places that please Him. We need to keep walking with God no matter what life may bring. We may not always be ready when a holiday or certain season comes, but we can be ready in our every day life with the armor of God. Let's put it on every single day because we don't know what life will bring. We need to have the whole armor on and nothing missing. Be fully protected and be ready. Are you Ready?