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“Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it; ruin is in its midst.” - Psalm 55:10

Hemmed in from every side, David wearied under the relentless attack of his enemies. Day and night, without ceasing, the fighting persisted like a driving rain. Sometimes, the hits keep coming and they don’t stop coming. It’s hard to roll with the punches when you are already punch drunk.

We cast our burdens upon Jesus, when under relentless attack, because there is simply no other way to survive. Imagine, a battle scene of old, a squadron of enemy archers firing a barrage of arrows that arc into the sky, but return downward into your camp. How do you defend yourself against this kind of relentless attack? In ancient times, warriors would bear a shield, often times large enough to cover their entire body, so that they could be well protected by these arrows of their oppressors. In this same line of thought, the Apostle Paul teaches us how we can also defend ourselves in spiritual attack - "Let your faith be like a shield, and you will be able to stop all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16)." Is your faith like a shield, protecting you from the bombarding assaults of the enemy? How does that even work? Stop and think about that for a moment. Our faith is build on the character and the promises of God. So, to utilize our faith as a shield, we must learn to declare our trust and confidence in God’s character and His promises. We believe, that for every arrow that attacks us, there is a truth about God that declares protection and victory over that attack. The more that we proclaim the greatness of our God and the goodness of His promises, the more effective the shield of our faith becomes. A man who regularly blazons a shield of faith in the person and promises of Jesus rarely falls in battle. Make a list of the arrows (doubt, anger, fear, anxiety, insecurity, etc) that plague you; but don’t stop there, assign a character trait or promise from God for each arrow that assails you. You will become stronger, more confident and more courageous in the fight than you ever thought possible.