The Mudroom – #72

Hi friends, I’m so glad you are here.

This is my last week writing in collaboration with my pastor about the rooms of prayer in God’s house. I hope that you have enjoyed reading as much as I have writing these. Even more so though, I hope that these posts have caused you to look at the Lord’s Prayer with fresh eyes, creating an even deeper desire within you to have an intimate relationship with our Father. 

If you are just now joining in, take a few minutes and read back over the rooms…

Our Father who is in heaven – The Porch

Hallowed be Your name – The Trophy Room

May your kingdom come and your will be done – The Work Room

Give us this day our daily bread – The Kitchen

Forgive us as we forgive others – The Laundry Room

And lastly, we will head into the mudroom, a place that holds coats, shoes, hats, and gear for your day.

I don’t actually have a mudroom. My “mudroom” is a space in the garage that has hooks for coats, hats and backpacks, bins and shelves for shoes, and nooks and crannies for other things such as umbrellas, belts, superman costumes, leashes, water bottles, rocks, crayons and I’m going to guess there is some old food out there too! 

The mudroom is a place where you put on clothing that equips you for the day. 

So if we are entering God’s mudroom, what clothing does He have available and what exactly are we equipping for?

What do we need to be prepared to encounter today?

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

More specifically, the evil one.

Satan, the source of all evil, has a sneaky way about him and has maneuvered himself into reeking havoc within our own selves, within others, and within society and systems. Just look at the world around you and you will see his mark of evil everywhere. Sometimes it makes me think twice about leaving the safety of my home! 

But God didn’t call us to just stay hauled up in our security and comfort. He didn’t say for us to stay in our holy huddles and our bible bubbles. God called us to go out, engage with the world and make disciples of all nations. He wants us to teach the world about Him! 

But how can we engage with the world if evil is all around? How will we be safe?

God tells us. 

His Word always tells us. 

His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

He tells us to put on His armor. 

His armor. Not ours. If we try to put on our own armor against the evil one, we may stand for a hot second, but we will eventually fall. But His armor is impenetrable, it is complete, it will not weaken with time and age.

His armor is what we need to withstand the evil one. 

So, I want you to stop right here and go read Ephesians 6:10-18! 

Do it! 

Ok, so with Ephesians 6 in mind, let’s look at what God says the evil one’s MO is and how His armor will protect us. 

The ancient serpent. He uses deception as a weapon. How do we counter deception? With Truth! 

Put on the belt of truth.

The evil one is cunning and often will twist the truth just enough so that we end up going with it, but God’s Word is the one real truth. If you put on the belt of truth by knowing His Word, then you will have eyes to see and fight the deception the evil one brings.

The devil. He uses slander and accusation as his weapon. The devil will attack your identity and will accuse you of not being God’s child, but if we live for Christ, then our identity in Him is secure. So how do we counter the evil one’s accusations?

Put on the breastplate of righteousness. 

When we professed Jesus as our Lord and Savior, Jesus gave us His righteousness. We will struggle with sin until we die, but when God looks at us, he sees Christ’s righteousness, and that is our identity. 

The great dragon. When I think of a dragon, I think of a big, scary, fire breathing beast who is out to get me. The great dragon, the evil one, uses fear and intimidation as his weapon. How do we counter fear and intimidation?

Put on the shield of faith.

By putting on the shield of faith, you are saying that you fully trust in God. God isn’t full of fear and intimidation, he is full of love and kindness. We can trust in Him and who He says He is. 

The Destroyer. He causes destruction. When he gets his hands on your mind, or in your relationships, or in society, he always causes destruction. He causes chaos. How do we counter destruction and chaos within ourselves, our relationships and our world?

Put on the sandals of peace.

Biblical peace is not the absence of trouble, it is your soul trusting God in the midst of that trouble. And biblical peace is also the idea of God bringing restoration to all things. The Destroyer wants to take what was good and make it bad. But God is all about restoring what the Destroyer turned bad, back to good.

Satan, which means adversary. Satan is in direct opposition to anything that has to do with God. Satan is your opponent and he will do anything to tear you down. How do we counter opposition?

Put on the helmet of salvation.

We are in the inaugural period. Christ has won ultimate victory, but it has not come to complete fruition yet. Believers in Jesus get to share in Christ’s victory. We are on His team and therefore, we are victorious. It may not look like it in the present moment, but we are victorious because Christ is victorious. 

And because there is a spiritual realm that we cannot see and a battle is raging, God gives us even more armor to gird ourselves up with. 

The sword of the spirit, God’s Word.

God doesn’t just leave us alone to fight the battle with the evil one. He gives us armor. How do we put the armor on?

We put on the full armor of God when we engage with God in prayer.

Seeing the news of another school shooting on Tuesday made me feel sick. It was pure evil. 

Being fully transparent, it made me question God and I felt angry. 

“God, how could you let this happen? I don’t feel like you are being faithful?”

And then I caught myself. 

Feel.

God may not feel faithful at this present moment, but what do I know about Him to be true? 

God is my Father.

God has been faithful through the ages.

God is doing work in His people and in His world, even if I can’t see it yet.

God provides exactly what I need.

God forgives me.

God leads me and He delivers me.

God is faithful and He is trustworthy. He will not fail. He is victorious. 

I will stand firm in that. 

God, Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.