By: Dale Weckbacher
Eph 6:17
And take the helmet
of salvation,
NKJV
Rom 12:2
And do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
NKJV
When I was younger, I used to love to play baseball. Unfortunately, as I have grown older, my body
is not as physically capable as it used to be so I usually am reserved to
watching the younger people play. There
was one time when I was playing that the pitcher threw what he thought would be
a breaking ball. The only problem was
that when he threw the ball it did not break and hit me in the head. I know some of you may be saying that that
explains a lot but fortunately, I had on a batting helmet and survived my
encounter with the baseball.
Just as the breastplate protected the Roman soldier’s vital
organs in battle, the helmet protected the soldiers other vital organ, his
brain. Without a helmet to protect him,
a blow to the head of a soldier could render a soldier unconscious making him
vulnerable to attack. A hard enough blow
to the head could even be fatal. With
the protection of his helmet, however, the soldier has a chance of surviving a
blow to the head and then continuing to fight in battle.
When an individual accepts Christ, they begin a
transformation of their mind. This
transformational process is a continual process and is what Paul is referring
to in Romans 12:2 when he urges us to be transformed by the renewing or
continual renewing of our minds. Isaiah
26:3 promises peace to the individual that chooses to have his mind fixed on
God. We fix our minds on the Lord by
spending time with the Lord in prayer and in His Word.
Fixing our minds on the Lord also protects us from wicked
thoughts that try to destroy us (Psalm 119:95).
Fixing our minds on the Lord makes us wise and from this wisdom we are
able to speak wise and persuasive words (Proverbs 16:23). This transformed mind is the result of our
changed hearts and not only benefits us, but also our descendants (Jeremiah
23:39). In fact, Jesus said that the
greatest commandment was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all
your soul, and all your mind.” (Matthew
22:37, NLT) Once again the Word stresses
the importance of having out mind fixed on the Lord.
The importance of the Helmet of Salvation is to protect our
transforming minds from the attacks of the enemy. 1 John 2:16 warns us about how the enemy will
attempt to attack our minds, “For all that is in the world — the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but
is of the world.” (NKJV) Let us look at how the enemy attacks us in
these areas
1)
Lust of the flesh – Prior to receiving Christ,
we lived with one desire, satisfying our fleshly desires. Whether we lived in promiscuity, had an
addiction to alcohol or drugs, or even lived a good life free of these things,
prior to having Christ in our hearts our desire was making our flesh, or
physical body, feel good. The truth is
that most of us came to Christ after having spent our lives attempting to
satisfy the flesh, only to realize our efforts were worthless because we always
had this God sized emptiness in our hearts.
However, even after we have received Christ, we still have the flesh and
spend our lives at war with its desires.
The Helmet of Salvation provides protection for us and enables us to
survive the barrage of fleshly desires we encounter.
2)
Lust of the eyes – Our mass media culture
exposes our eyes to lustful things on a continual basis. As I was growing up, television and magazines
were the primary sources of lustful stimuli for the eyes. However, today we have television, magazines,
and also the internet. In addition, the
internet is no longer only available on our computers but is also accessible
through our smartphones or tablets. We
must depend upon the Helmet of Salvation to protect our fragile minds from
these easily accessible stimuli for our eyes.
3)
The pride of life – Proverbs 16:18 warns us that
pride precedes destruction. This does
not mean that as believers we are not to have pride or confidence but our confidence
is to be in the fact that the Lord is with us (Proverbs 3:25-26). Too much selfish pride in our lives causes us
to trust more in our own abilities and push God to the side. This would be like a soldier taking off his
helmet in battle believing he is impervious to harm. Any soldier doing doomed to destruction in
battle.
I therefore urge everyone entering into spiritual battle for
the souls of people and our nation to spend time with the Lord in prayer and in
the Word, allowing the Lord to transform our minds. Then, as we daily live our lives in the
battlefield of this world, we must not forget our Helmet of Salvation. The future of our nation and the lost souls
living in it depend upon us transforming our minds and protecting them with the
Helmet of Salvation. We can then boldly
go into spiritual battle vigilant with clear and sober minds (1 Peter 5:8) and
begin the process of transforming our society.
This is what the early church did and they turned the world upside down
(Acts 17:6).
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