Christan Jellies can you tell me more about your personal use of the armor of Christ?

My Father died 40 years ago. My Mom died in 2005, 19 years ago.
My Dad was not a big letter writer. His penmanship was not very good, and he had trouble expressing himself. When he wrote, those letters were valued.
When he was dating my Mom, he was in the Navy, so there were a few letters.
My sister gave me one of those letters a couple years ago. I stuck it in a drawer.
Last year, my wife opened that drawer, and the letter stuck the drawer closed. She forced it open, and tore the letter. She pulled it out, and then tore it to small pieces. She then thought better of it, and put the small pieces on my table, figuring I would see the trash, and throw it away without much thought.
When I saw it, I saw the unmistakeable handwriting of my father. I was enraged!
I told my wife how important that letter was, and that she never should have made a bad matter worse by hand shredding it. She apologized, but my anger stuck with me for several days.
Three days later my wife knew how deeply I was affected by this. She felt I was going to ask for a divorce (we’ve been married for nearly 40 years).
I wasn’t feeling any ease from the hurt and anger. When I went to bed that night, during my prayers, I asked the Lord to help me through this. The next morning, I could feel the weight lifted. I was still unhappy, but my emotions were no longer red lining.
That prayer to the Lord did it.

I’m an atheist but I know the value of sitting back and reflecting on what really matters before making hasty decisions or following knee-jerk reactions. That’s the difference between immaturity and adulthood if you ask me.

^^ Agree…and I’ve never even heard of the armor of christ, even though I was raised Methodist.

I’ve never heard of the armor of Christ.

From Ephesians chapter 6:

“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.”

Now, what does that mean? To me it is saying you need to get right with God because you will need His protection in the future. It also tells us the things we need to work on to fight the evil in the world: Truth, Righteousness, Peace, firm Faith, Accepting Salvation, and understanding and following the word of God. I see this last as sort of a catch-all to cover anything else that might not have been covered. It also gives guidance on how to know what is expected for the things that were mentioned.

That is what the Armor of God is. How have I used it? I think the last significant use I had for it was when I got laid off from a job. 58 yo and suddenly unemployed is an interesting time. There is, indeed, age discrimination alive and well in this country, though proving it is likely not possible. But I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior a long time ago (salvation). As part of that, I have to trust in Him to watch over me (faith). I never let despair take over while I was looking for a job (peace) and I ended up finding a job before the money ran out.

@seawulf575 explained it well. I will add that every ”Bible believing Christian” church teaches these concepts to its members. If you find one that doesn’t, that’s what we call “culturally Christian” (yes, we really do use those terms).

As for myself, at one point in my life, we had 10 people and 4 generations in our house. There was a kitchen schedule, a shower schedule, and a laundry schedule. There was a basket of keys by the front door so we could change out the cars in the driveway. The house was often messy and noisy. It was nuts.

In addition, everyone in my life seemed to be angry, and I was often the recipient of that anger. I remember one morning my husband tried to start an argument with me before I even woke up!

Instead of being upset, I was so filled with joy that I managed to keep a straight face until I left the bedroom, then chuckled all the way down the hall to the kitchen. I made a wonderful breakfast for the family and had a great day.

It was a most unusual experience, but I lived like that for two years, and I will add that for me, it was actually fun. I looked forward to every day with anticipation, peace and joy- what would God do next?

The firey darts of the enemy (the arguments and the grumpy comments directed at me), never reached me because I was using all the spiritual armor mentioned in Ephesians chapter 6.

That was 23 years ago. I often remind myself of that time, because that is still my goal today. I have found freedom in ways I never dreamed possible. I have walked in peace so long, that everything feels wrong if I don’t have that peace, and I am scrambling to get back to it.

Both gentlemen described their interpretation well. I think the full armour of God means to be firm in your faith and belief regardless of life’s obstacles.

The armour of God is always available, or, as the Irish proverb has it “God’s help is nearer than the door.”

This question is an example of the difference between fundamentalists and others. I know lots of people lump Christians into one pile – “Christians believe this” “Christians do that” but I was raised a Protestant, so we believe in God but we’re not praising Jesus all the time or atoning for our sins or feeling it’s a terrible thing to miss church, or feeling it’s a terrible thing to never attend church at all, and I have never heard of the Armor of Christ or the Armor of God.

^^ Amen sister!

It was just a phrase intended to keep us safe from Satan and to act like Christians.
It didn’t work.

It works for me @Dutchess_III.

I have always hated when i meet people who just “act like” how they think a Christian is supposed to act. They are toxic!

^^^And terrible at volleyball!

Guilty as charged @Dutchess_III No surprise, I’ve never cared for games with balls.

However, I have many fond memories of skiing.