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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 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. (Eph.6:13-18)
As Paul works through the panoply of weapons and armor the Christian is to strap on each day, he calls us to put on the helmet of salvation. In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul told them to put on the hope of salvation as a helmet (1 Thess.5:8). Figuratively, the function of a helmet is to guard our minds. Again, this language reveals that the greatest part of spiritual warfare lies in our thought life. In 2 Corinthians 10, where Paul discuss “divine weapons,” he explains that the key to tearing down strongholds is to bring every thought we have captive to Jesus Christ (2 Cor.10:5). In other words, when we align our thinking with the truths of Jesus, strongholds begin to crumble.
The reality is, however, that we can believe one thing in our minds and something else in our hearts. We have all had the experience of saying,” Part of me thinks this, but another part of me thinks that.” James talks about this experience as a “double-minded” man who follows the Lord only half-heartedly. I ran across a concept at a conference in Chicago that speaks to this (I can’t remember who the speaker was). The speaker spoke about “aspirational values” versus “actual values.” Aspirational values are values or beliefs we aspire to hold because we know we should. Actual values, on the other hand, are the ones we live by. We often say one thing and do another. Our actual values can be determined by seeing what we do rather than by what we say.
For instance, a man can say that his family is the most important thing in his life yet never spend any time with them because of the immense number of hours he puts in at work or pursuing another interest. If you ask him, he will always says that his family comes first (aspirational value) but if you watch him you will know that his job, golf, hunting, etc. come first because that is what gets his quality time and effort year after year. Because of that we need to examine our own lives often to see if our actual values and beliefs are lining up with Christ. Anything less gives the enemy a foothold in our mind and then in our life.
Salvation or the hope of salvation guards our minds with the truth of who we are and what we have in Christ and motivates us to stay true to the values and actions Christ calls us to hold in our minds and hearts. The enemy nearly always attacks our thought processes first with doubt, accusation, or condemnation and we need to actively push back against these false beliefs. Too many times, the whispers of the enemy go unnoticed or unchallenged or we believe that those thoughts come from us so we don’t know what to do with them. I always encourage believers to pay attention to their thoughts and if any are contrary to God’s word then we should first assume that a spirit is tempting us, renounce those thoughts, declare what is true, and command any unclean spirit to leave us immediately and never return.
In many cases, the thought ceases immediately and does not return. If the thought actually originated with us and not a spirit, then we have lost nothing and have still spoken truth over the lie even if it came from us and have reinforced God’s word in our hearts and mind.
Salvation, biblically, is not just the forgiveness of sin and eventual life in heaven but it is the promise that God meets our every need in this world as well as the world to come – every need, not every want. Satan’s biggest lie is that we have desires which are “needs” that God won’t provide so we need to search outside of God and his will to have our “needs” met. That was the lie in the Garden and is still his favorite. Our understanding of salvation and God’s promises guards our minds against those lies. Paul said that he had learned to be content with seasons of plenty and seasons of little because he believed in each season God would still meet his essential needs. Salvation gives us that assurance and is a great safeguard for our minds. It is indeed our helmet.
Ask yourself where your thinking is about God’s care and promises for you. You may need to realign some thoughts yourself as I often do and remember to differentiate between your actual values and beliefs and those you aspire to as a believer. Where there is a contradiction renounce it and declare God’s truth over the lie. Be blessed.
