Shielded

Any Star Trek fan knows that shields are important. The first thing Captain Kirk does when things start heading south is to order the shields up. Or, if sci-fi isn't your thing, think of the popular image of the Spartans in ranks with their shields held high and together, warding off the rain of arrows.

I was thinking of both those images this morning as I continued on in 1 Peter 1. Again, I didn't get very far before I stopped reading and started thinking, this time about shields.

Peter wrote (vv3-5) "In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade –kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

We looked a little bit yesterday at the first part of this, about the inheritance kept in heaven for us. Today we add the who - those who through faith are shielded.

The part about being shielded by God's power is kind of a no-brainer, although very comforting. I have always believed that God was powerful enough to shield me. One of my favorite Old Testament images is that in Psalms of sheltering under God's wings.

I got stuck this morning thinking about what my faith has to do with it. My faith doesn't make God more powerful, and it doesn't make God more or less desiring to shield me. Yet Peter is clear: I am shielded through faith.

If I think of the shield of faith Paul wrote to the Ephesians about (Ephesians 6), I think of a one-handed shield that a warrior would wield in his off hand. So maybe the role of my faith is that I trust the shield enough to pick it up and use it. Or if I think of God's shield as a protective wall (a mighty fortress is our God) then maybe my faith keeps me inside the wall, in the place of God's blessing.

Either way, it seems to suggest that I can make a choice to be shielded or not to be. God's protection never fails; my desire to be protected sometimes does. Sometimes I'd rather leave the fort and go mingle with the natives. Sometimes I want to sneak away and do something bad.

God knows that; He knows me. That's why He gave me the Holy Spirit, so that with only a little bit of weak desire, I can be empowered to stay where it's safe.