Helmet of Salvation

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

THE HELMET OF SALVATION

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

NIV

Being strong in the Lord and in his mighty power and having put on his armor so we can stand of our ground, we have belted our waist with the truth. We have our breastplate of righteousness in place and our feet have been fitted and we have our shield of faith. So now we have to put on that helmet of salvation. Again we know that Jesus is our salvation. But the idea Paul was making is that we need to have something to guard our minds. The Roman soldier had a helmet that covered his whole head, ears, back of his neck, his forehead and a portion or strip that came down over his nose. There were some advantages this style of the helmet had in the sense of offering a great deal of protection for the head, however, there were also some disadvantages in that it did limit the soldiers' vision in that he could only see that which was directly in front of him. So there is a dual lesson for us here. First, we need to guard our minds against the schemes of the devil. Second, the best way to do that is to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. We should not be looking to the right or left but straight ahead to our final destination, heaven. This could be illustrated by what happens when we drive a car and stare either to the right or left. The car begins to wander in the direction of our stare. In order to keep on the straight and narrow side of our road, we need to stay focused on the road ahead. Even when we glance down on our cell phone, or text while driving, we are distracted from a straight path. These are the temptations that all around us, and if we stare at them too long, we wander from our straight and narrow path of following God.

Heb 12:1-3

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

NIV

Keeping our eyes upon Jesus serves us in so many ways. We also have to see that guarding our mind is essential. Our thought life can be so very destructive to a healthy mind. Those attitudes of criticism,  being judgmental, bitterness, jealousy, envy, refusing to forgive, holding a grudge, greediness or lusting after the material things of this world, the desire to gossip, just to name a few of those thoughts that could crowd out Jesus from our minds. In addition, there are so many things about how we look, what clothes we wear, is it to impress others, or make us feel good about ourselves. Again, just a distraction over the physical, material matters of life. It is not that we are not to enjoy life, and the things God has given us, but we are not supposed to enjoy sin, the preoccupation with self, and our material stuff. The helmet, Jesus guards our mind against those things, and we are to stay focused on our goal, finish the battle, run the race toward the finish line, focused on our salvation, Jesus.