Growing up as a VBS frequent, I know the Armor of God imagery pretty well. From the helmet of salvation to the sword of the spirit, I have participated in multiple skits and crafted a handful of paper soldiers in my time. While I could recite the armor by memory, however, I’ll admit that until my mid 20’s, I often glanced right past the verse that said why this armor was even necessary. After all, “cosmic powers” and “spiritual forces of evil” sounded more like characters from my Harry Potter books than characters from my real life (Ephesians 6:12).  

But then I moved to Haiti, a country deeply rooted in Voodoo. A place where the Armor of God wasn’t just a felt board illustration, but rather a part of a Christian’s daily wardrobe. A place where one always had to “keep alert” as Paul once said (Ephesians 6:18). 

I know this sounds crazy, but our first years in Haiti my husband and I lived in a compound which was said to be cursed. “For years people have let Satan come into this place,” a Haitian friend once told me. And he wasn’t kidding. Bakas (evil spirits summoned to seek revenge) supposedly roamed the yard behind our house. There were some natives who weren’t too happy that foreigners had been sent to be in charge. The bakas were there for us. 

It took my husband and me a long while to see past our ignorance when it came to spiritual warfare. By the time we realized the true battle surrounding us, we both hated our jobs, our marriage was crumbling, our faith was weak, and I had become dangerously thin. Satan was attacking us on all sides, and our armor had proven to be pretty weak. 

Thankfully, with God’s guidance and an army of other Christians by our side, we learned how to strengthen our armor and fight back the darkness. The more we persevered, the more our character grew. The stronger our character, the more we developed a hope that did not put us to shame, but rather one that strengthened our faith, our marriage, and our ministry in ways we never could have imagined before. 

As scary as that season was, God never left my side. All I had to do was put on the armor I had learned about back in the days of VBS. If you are in the midst of a battle in your own life, the Armor of God can protect you, too. All you have to do is put it on and ask God to help you strengthen it.