Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:13
One dramatic moment stands out among all others from the brutal Tiananmen Square massacre that occurred in Beijing, China on June 4, 1989. As protesters gathered in the square for a peaceful demonstration, the army”s soldiers and tanks swept into the square and began shooting. Nobody knows how many hundreds of people were massacred that day. The violence was followed by the widespread arrests of protesters, the expulsion of foreign journalists, and the censorship of media coverage of the event. But one image leaked out, the image of one man in a white shirt, standing in front of a line of tanks that was about to enter the square. The tanks stopped. The man jumped onto the tank and spoke with those inside. When he jumped back down, two people pulled him out of the way as the tanks proceeded. Nobody knows for sure who ‘tank man’ was, although it is almost certain that he was arrested and executed for his ‘crime’. But he is an example of one man willing to stand in the face of impossible odds. All he did was stand. And the world remembers. All God is asking us to do in the face of opposition is to stand.
Tiananmen Square’s tank man had nothing to protect himself with. If the tank had not stopped, he would have been crushed. If people had not pulled him aside when the tank restarted, he would have been crushed. But you and I have armour that will protect and preserve us when the enemy’s crushing attacks come. Otherwise, we would be crushed, too. To protect ourselves, we must ‘take unto you the whole armour of God’. And the chapter where our text is found identifies each piece of that armour. It will equip us for the battle. Most of all, it will enable us to stand.
A variation of a common expression appeared in a Methodist Church announcement in an Iowa newspaper in 1926: ‘It is easier to fall for anything than to stand for something’. No wonder the world around us falls for the lies of the devil; it takes little or no effort. And it is shocking what ridiculous nonsense that millions of people fall for. Take the unproven and unprovable lies of evolution and global warming, for example. The liars spread their lies with a little sugar coating, and the gullible effortlessly gobble it up. But to stand for the truth, that takes some doing. For example, it takes faith to believe the Word of God, although the Word of God supports that faith by being entirely true and absolutely reliable. It also takes conviction to live honestly and generously in a thieving and greedy world, conviction that comes from reading and obeying the Word of God. Sometimes there are battles to fight, and God equips us to fight them. But we don’t face battles every day, at least not big battles. But we do have to stand for God every day. Otherwise, we fall for the deceiver’s lies and fall into the devil’s traps.
It’s not always easy to stand for God. But it is always destructive not to stand for God. – Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/TlrSDg_C_OM