Momma, Do You Have Your Armor On?
As moms we are on the battlefield daily as the keepers of our homes. We have a lot of ground work to cover if we want healthy households. That work begins inside us first spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I think the difficult part can be deciding where to start. My first line of defense is typically spiritual because truly everything flows from there. If I am off kilter from where I should be with the Lord, then I know everything else is eventually going to come unhinged because then my lenses I’m looking through is altered for sure.
In the book of Ephesians 6:10-18 says we are to be strong in the Lord. Here’s the complete verse so you can read it .
Sad to say in today’s society we have so many distractions that it’s far simple to have our spiritual practice, prayer time with the Lord, and Bible reading and study as well as meditation of His Word fall to the way side. This is why we have to guard this time and make it a non-negotiable part of our day. I realize again that’s easier said than done especially as busy wives and mothers. Here’s the hard truth, we can’t do life on our own. We are not enough. We need God. We need Yeshua (Jesus). I don’t care what this world tells you, this I am enough stuff is garbage. That’s a lie from the pit of hell. We were made to abide with our creator. That is why even Yeshua (God incarnate) took time to be present with His Heavenly Father. So if the Son of God who is also God needed that time, then so do we.
If you don’t have a regular practice of reading scripture and prayer, let’s start there. These are two different foundational and necessary topics in the life of the believer. We need both to know and fellowship with our God.
First let’s talk about prayer. Prayer in my opinion has been falsely represented. Prayer is a conversation between us and the Father. Prayer is made up of requests/petitions, tears, laughter, questions, and just really us sharing with the Father. Prayer is not about putting in your order at the drive thru window and getting your chicken sandwich and if you didn’t get your chicken sandwich, then prayer doesn’t work. Yes, the believers earnest prayers are powerful. They are powerful because we are made in the image of Yeshua, and because of who we are praying to as well. Prayer works because our Abba hears us always. We might not always like His response, but that’s a completely different issue. So why do we need to talk to God if He is omniscient? That answer is because He wants intimacy with us. He wants us to tell Him everything. Just start talking. Do so with reverence in regard to who you are beginning the conversation. Praise Him, acknowledge where you need forgiveness and need to repent, and then spill it. Sometimes I forget the previous and just spill it. In general though that is how Yeshua taught us to pray.
When it comes to reading scripture, the holy words of Yeshua Himself, otherwise called the Bible, I understand that this can be intimidating on a variety of accounts. First of all it’s a big book. I get it. I’m a slow reader and when I see a big book I get a little nervous. For now instead of looking at it as a whole, I want you to consider what it really is, a compilation of 66 smaller books. Take one at a time. I do think it’s valuable to read one whole book at a time. As you get into Bible studies they will/may have you cross referencing other verses from other books, that’s fine. Two tools I want to suggest are The One Year Bible and the free app by Proverbs 31 Ministries First 5. I personally use both of these tools.
I learned about The One Year Bible from women at one of the churches that I previously attended. It made me feel comfortable reading the Bible. Now I finally had a place to stop and start each day. It’s funny when it comes to reading the scriptures the anxiety that will rise up or requirements we put on ourselves. This took all that nonsense away for me because I had a plan now. When a task feels so huge like reading a big book, and maybe you don’t feel this way, but to me looking at everything can feel insurmountable. It’s helps me to break it down in bite size pieces. This made reading the Word of God a joy. While going deeper with the Lord, learning more about Him, myself, and the world around me was a huge desire, I needed a bit of help getting there. I can remember years ago opening it up and not knowing when it was okay to stop. I’d put stupid guilt trips on myself if I didn’t read enough. Look at this point in my walk I realize mulling over and meditate sometimes on just one scripture, just one sentence, sometimes even just one word in the Bible is enough. I didn’t really know that then and when you are just getting started a Bible set up this way is wonderful.
Alongside that I highly recommend Proverbs 31 Ministries First 5 App. Bonus is its free. I’m totally not affiliated with Proverbs 31 Ministries at all. I just love this app. There’s a scripture reading portion, then a written commentary to read afterwards. On the weekends there’s an audible summary to listen to and I’ve found it extremely encouraging. You can opt to purchase their Bible study booklets that go along with each study. They have a whole online community going along with the studies as well. This gives great perspective and really has opened my eyes to certain topics.
A third resource I want to mention is your local church. If you do not belong to a strong Bible believing and teaching church, please pray, and seek one out. We are called by believers to fellowship regularly, study, and serve with a regular body of believers. It is for our benefit as well as the benefit of the rest of the church body. I just want to put it out there that when church hurt occurs, and it will because people go there, yet at the end of the day we need each other. The Lord Yeshua set up the church because we need each other. We are not islands. While it’s certainly not a salvation issue, it is an issue of the heart. I experienced extreme church hurt on various occasions at one particular church. After finally leaving there I did not want to attend another, please believe me. I told the Lord that too. He was so gentle with me though and gave me space and time. We began back at a home church with friends. I knew it was His design for us to attend a regular church body. Hebrews 10:25 states, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Eventually we began going to the small, precious fellowship that we now attend. I also knew it was a huge matter of the heart. When we rely on the listening of our hearts, we will be deceived. Jeremiah 17: 9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?“ It would’ve been way to easy to listen to my wounded heart. I knew I needed to trust Him though and His design. I had to obey even though I didn’t want to, and let Him do the rest, because I love and trust Him. I had to let Him carry me and hold my hand even though it scared me to try again. In another post I will share things we should look for when church home searching.
These are some good places to begin I believe with putting our armor on. I’ll talk about deeper Bible study resources in another post. I pray blessings upon you momma as you read this post. I pray it helps and blesses you abundantly. Know you are loved beyond measure by your Heavenly Father Yah, His Son Yeshua, and me💕💕💕
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All of the information here is not medical advice. It is merely here for educational purposes.
