The Shield of Faith

BY Bailey T. Hurley

The shield, a soldier’s primary defense, was made from wood and covered in linen or leather. Roman soldiers would also lock their shields together to defend themselves against their enemies as a unit. Throughout Scripture, God is referred to as a shield, and faith in Him serves as protection for us as individuals and as the people of God. 

I was fourteen, sitting in a musty old chapel in the middle of the woods, when it became clear to me that Jesus Christ is the real deal. That evening, like many who attended church camps as a youth, I decided to follow Jesus. There wasn’t some life-changing sermon or an altar call, but a slow progression to trusting God with my life. I came home that week and my mom told me, “You walked in the door and there was a light glowing around you. I knew you would never be the same.” She was right. God, “being rich in mercy,” made me alive again through Jesus Christ by faith (Ephesians 2:4–10).

Yet faith is not a one-time commitment. After I entrusted my life to Jesus, I still struggled with various attacks, specifically on my identity. Being a teenage girl is hard. Bodies and social hierarchies are changing, and it was challenging to not let others steal my worth from me. I wanted to believe and trust who God said I was, but it was hard to ignore the influences around me. I needed an active faith to protect me from those attacks. 

In Ephesians 6, we are called “In every situation [to] take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). Faith is a daily practice that helps us douse the doubt around us. 

My battle of belief comes from a fear of doubting my value in Jesus—am I good enough for God? For you, it may be your children, your marriage, your physical health, your finances, your church, your mental health, or your beliefs that feel attacked. Any one of these things requires us to take up the shield of faith and trust in God to deliver us. 

As women who believe in God we can hold tightly to this truth: “Everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith” (1John 5:4). 

God will fight for us as we trust in Him and His timing. Faith is scary because it requires risk. We aren’t promised an exact time and day for relief from the enemy’s arrows. But “faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is taking the step forward, an action-oriented obedience, to trust God and believe He is “guard[ing] the steps of his faithful ones” (1Samuel 2:9).