Though it consists mainly of habitudes and dispositions of our own
minds, none the less have we to receive these from above. It is 'the
panoply of God,' therefore we are to be endued with it, not by exercises
in our own strength, but by dependence on Him. In old days, before a
squire was knighted, he had to keep a vigil in the chapel of the castle,
and through the hours of darkness to watch his armour and lift his soul
to God, and we shall never put on the armour of light unless in silence
we draw near to Him who teaches our hands to war and our fingers to
fight. Communion with Christ, and only communion with Christ, receives
from Him the life which enables us to repel the diseases of our spirits.
What He imparts to those who thus wait upon Him, and to them only, is
the Spirit which helps their infirmities and clothes their undefended
nakedness with a coat of mail. If we go forth to war with evil, clothed
and armed only with what we can provide, we shall surely be worsted in
the fray. If we go forth into the world of struggle from the secret
place of the Most High, 'no weapon that is formed against us shall
prosper,' and we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved
us.
But waiting on God to receive our weapons from Him is but part of what
is needful for our equipment. It is we who have to gird our loins and
put on the breastplate, and shoe our feet, and take the shield of faith,
and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. The cumbrous
armour of old days could only be put on by the help of another pulling
straps, and fixing buckles, and lifting and bracing heavy shields on
arms, and fastening helmets upon heads; but we have, by our own effort,
to clothe ourselves with God's great gift, which is of no use to us, and
is in no real sense ours, unless we do. It takes no small effort to
keep ourselves in the attitude of dependence and receptivity, without
which none of the great gifts of God come to us, and, least of all, the
habitual practice of Christian virtues. The soldier who rushed into the
fight, leaving armour and arms huddled together on the ground, would
soon fall, and God's giving avails nothing for our defence unless there
is also our taking. It is the woful want of taking the things that are
freely given to us of God, and of making our own what by His gift is our
own, that is mainly responsible for the defeats of which we are all
conscious. Looking back on our own evil days, we must all be aware that
our defeats have mainly come from one or other of the two errors which
lie so near us all, and which are intimately connected with each
other--the one being that of fighting in our own strength, and the other
being that of leaving unused our God-given power.