God Is Our Shield

But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
Psalm 3:3

I remember lying in bed one night long ago, unable to sleep. Uncertainty gripped my heart with fingers of fear, strangling out all rational thought. I was teetering on the brink of a full-blown panic attack. I wanted to trust God. I just wasn’t sure I could get my heart there. Can you relate? Ever had a panic attack? Life can, at times, hurl at us the unexpected and leave us shaken to the core.

When David wrote Psalm 3, he was shaken to the core. He was on the run from his son Absalom who was trying to kill him and overtake the throne. I can’t imagine one of my kids being so angry that they wanted to kill me, can you? David poured out his heart to the Lord but then made this glorious proclamation about God being his shield.

“Your faith—however small—in the person of Christ Jesus. His very nature is faithfulness.”

The apostle Paul also mentions a shield in his famous passage on the armor of God in Ephesians 6. He calls it the shield of faith. In both passages, the shield is God’s faithfulness. We don’t create a shield by conjuring up enough faith. When uncertainty, fear, and anxiety pummel our minds, we often can’t come up with what we feel is enough faith.

The great reassurance from this passage is that you don’t have to. Simply put your faith—however small—in the person of Christ Jesus. His very nature is faithfulness. He is the one who shields our thinking in the day of battle. When we focus on His faithful goodness, the Holy Spirit shields our minds from the tormenting attacks of the enemy. God’s faithfulness literally becomes a shield around our minds, but only as we choose to focus our thoughts on Him.

Today, when fear threatens to capture your thinking, take those thoughts prisoner. Shift your focus to praising God. He is your shield. His faithfulness will guard your thinking as you fix your thoughts on Him.