Bible study – The Armour of God – Week 2

Hey lovelies,

I hope you’ve had a lovely week.

Here is my 2nd weeks bible study for The Armour of God (later than I wanted it to be).

Ephesians 6:10-18 The Armor of God
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 Lord’s people.

Week 2

Q&A –

1 – Sin could be described as ‘a web of guilt…from which there is no escape’.

How would you describe sin?
Sin is a weapon the devil uses & can be a lot of different things ranging from rudeness to murder.
It’s repercussions?
The repercusions are the loss of God & death.

2 – read Psalm 18:16-19 & 31:8. One Old Testament word for salvation – yasha – means ‘rescue’.

What do you think Davids thoughts & feelings were in Psalm 18:16-19 & 31:8?
Gratitude & relief. Knowledge in the fact that he made God happy & pleasure in doing so.

3 – Consider stories where an innocent person has been kidnapped & a ransom demanded – either a substantial amount of money or the exchange of important prisoners.

What might be involved in gaining the persons freedom?
Lots of negotiation, gentle words & patience.
How do you think that person would feel when set free?
Relief, appreciation & apprehension.
How would you feel if it were you?
All of the above but part of me thinks, what would be the result of adding more funding to their means or released prisoners to their ranks?? Would it actually be a good idea to pay the ransom in order to save me? I honestly don’t know if it would be?

4 – Read Ephesians 1:7. ‘Redemption’ (or ‘redeem’) is often used in relation to salvation in both the Old & New Testaments & suggests a cost.

In what ways is salvation free yet very costly?
Salvation is freely given by God, with His grace. It is costly because it cost Jesus His life!

5 –

How does the cost of salvation impact you?
Due to Jesus’ sacrifice, we are required to live our lives in accordance with Him – selfless, loving, generous & self-sacrificing!

6 –

Have you ‘fallen out’ with someone & then reconciled? How did if feel to experience both?
Frustration when the reason isn’t known or feeling like it can’t be resolved, then relief & thankful when it is, occasionaly wondering what all the fuss was about to begin with.

7 – Read 2 Corinthians 5:18 & Colossians 1:21-22. Reconciliation is another aspect of salvation.

What does this mean to you?
We must not sit on bad feeling, sort it out as soon as possible, wherever possible. We are reconciled to God when we are free from sin.

8 – Consider the following Rs – rescued, redeeemed, ransomed, reconciled, restored, renewed, right, relationship.

What does each entail?
Rescued & Redeemed – Jesus rescued/redeemed us from sin & the devil by sacrificing himself
Ransomed – We were all ransomed bu the devil & Jesus paid our ransome with His life
Reconciled & Restored – We are reconciled to God through Jesus & God restores us a result
Renewed – We are renewed by Gods Holy Spirit, filling us anew each day & whenever we ask for it
Right relationship – We have the right relationship with God, Jesus & His Holy Spirit when we acknowledge that They make up the Holy Trinity, are all one God & live according to His will.
Use these for a phrase.
Thank you Lord for rescueing me & paying my ransom with Your life. Thank you Lord for reconciling me to Our Holy Father & Thank you Father for restoring me. Thank you for filling me with Your Holy Spirit, renewing me everytime. I thank you Father for your eternel love & for showing me how to enter into a right relationship with You & for Your unwaivering forgiveness when I fail to do so.

The personal application to help us with the week ahead –

That’s the end of my 2nd weeks study.

~what question would you struggle with?~
~what would your answers be?~

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Bye for now.

One thought on “Bible study – The Armour of God – Week 2”

Questions 6 and 7 caught my attention and made me think about the struggles I see.

6 – Have you ‘fallen out’ with someone & then reconciled? How did if feel to experience both?
There is such a huge need for reconciliation after there’s been significant conflict. It’s not that conflict is a sin as such because it isn’t always. Whenever we are challenged by something that requires us to learn something new or something that we have to gain more maturity and wisdom to handle well perhaps. It’s not uncommon for there to be disagreements that are uncomfortable. Whenever we react defensively to a comment that was never an attack we change the relationship because a defense mechanism will create rivalry and a need to win something. Those times are the most important times to have resources that can help reconciliation to happen. The alternative is simply to choose division. When we choose division we are saying a matter can’t be resolved.

And look at this…. If the person who is “feeling” that a matter can’t be resolved is also able to remove all opportunities for helpful and constructive reconciliation to be gained then they will get perhaps what they actually want – NO RECONCILIATION!!! Not a hope or a chance of reconciliation!!!! That’s my experience within a community that picks and chooses who gets invitations to reconciliation and who gets turned down and told to go away.

7 – Reconciliation is another aspect of salvation.
It is. Soooooo much. It’s totally wonderful. “Sort it out as soon as possible” you say Sarah. That’s spot on excellent advice. My marriage has thrived and grown enormously strong and wonderful because of this attitude to reconciliation. Our wider family is stronger too because we take care. It’s sometimes very difficult but I find when we have the intention to be reconciled because we want good relations to bless and guard one another then our prayers get answered. In all manner of ways too. The hard work, patience and time pays off because we love one another in practical ways and our hearts grow on the journey. It sounds odd, but if we didn’t clash, the joys that emerge from those conflicts would never have emerged.

How much more would our churches grow in our love for one another if our relationships mattered to us more? Would we choose to be equipped better with education and wisdom, resources to enable more opportunities to get to know our real selves a bit more. Whenever our differences create conflict of any sort (and they will, guaranteed) if we all had the same view of church being the “body of Christ”, full of different people in order to make us stronger, then all conflicts would be handled well. In a manner that drew us together in greater love, helped us to grow up a bit so we didn’t get so annoyed by the quirkiness of those who are different. ALWAYS willing to be curious and wonder why God made us the way he did and what He has in mind for the gifts He’s given to each of us. And in THAT we see the gospel for real, the Kingdom of God outworking and living amongst us. It’s just so powerful.

Those who prefer to have division may possibly be building a kingdom for themselves at the expense of all the annoying body bits they might want to amputate. PLEASE Lord save us from being in a world-version of your church, where reconciliation is only a word that has no life-saving reality should a church decide, secretly of course, they don’t want some people joining them. The Bible says that if we don’t love our brothers and sisters in Christ we cannot say that we love God. That’s a very serious matter indeed. Let’s do everything we can to help people love one another more.

LikeLiked by 1 person