My older dog, a 10-year-old shih Tzu, has gotten more and more fearful of storms and loud noises in recent years. About a month ago, I decided to purchase a “thundershirt” for her at the pet store. It is basically a tshirt that wraps around the dog or cat’s chest and around the neck and is used for anxiety from a number of things like storms and fireworks. The security of the shirt is supposed to calm the pet when storms come, etc. I have put it on her a number of times during the last 4 weeks. It takes a few minutes to calm her during storms and it didn’t work the best with July 4th fireworks.
What is your “thundershirt” when fear and anxiety come at you? Maybe it’s eating, maybe other addictive behaviors, watching TV, exercising, obsessing with social media and things like Snapchat? It could be a multitude of things. Other options are to face it head on with God’s help or let it consume you. How is your method working for you? When you face fear and anxiety head on with God’s help, you need to be wearing the armor of God – that will protect you, calm you, and bring you peace 1,000 times more than turning to your own “thundershirt.” So, you’re thinking, “this is a stretch.” In reality, it really isn’t – we either turn to our own coping mechanisms or we turn to God.
The armor of God consists of the following:
- Helmet of Salvation – don’t you know it is our salvation that allows us know God and wear the rest of the armor!
- Breastplate of Righteousness – we need this because Jesus is our righteousness. This eliminates any requirement for performance, trying harder, or measuring up on our end.
- Shield of Faith – this is needed to trust God in our anxiety or fear or other emotions or situations.
- Belt of Truth – truth is critical because the enemy is out to feed you lies that cause the fear and anxiety in the first place!
- Sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God – the Truth!
- Sandals of Peace – Jesus is our peace and our mission is to spread that everywhere we go.
Have you ever thought about this? You might not be able to turn to your “thundershirts” when you are donning the armor of God. When you imagine wearing the armor, it would be mighty difficult to eat, drink alcohol, do drugs, engage in sexual sin and more. When we don’t don the armor of God every day, we make ourselves vulnerable to the enemy and the lies he uses to steal, kill and destroy!
Whatever the emotion, belief system, situation, God and the armor He has given us will always be the answer! When the storms of life come, what will you be wearing?
