Armor of God: Shoes of Peace
“And the work of righteousness is peace; quietness and assurance…” (reference Isaiah 32:16-17; any translation)
At their very essence, shoes were made to protect our feet and help us walk across different terrain without worry. Nowadays, we have specific shoes for specific occasions and uses. We have tennis shoes for active wear, heels and loafers for dressing up, boots for different seasons and environments… No matter what type of shoe and what type of occasion, I’m confident we can all agree that the shoes we wear hold us up and protect us as we go about our days.
We can move in confidence, knowing that we don’t have to necessarily watch every single step we take as we go in stride. If you live in New York like I do, then you also understand the value of a good pair of shoes while walking on sidewalks and across the street. There’s a lot of things you can see that you wouldn’t want to step on, and there are way more things you can’t see that you wouldn’t want to either.
Shoes help us walk in peace, and the same can be said of the Roman soldier, whose armor Paul uses to break down the armor of God. The third piece of armor the Children of God are meant to put on — after truth and righteousness — is a pair of shoes. The shoes of peace.
Quite frankly, it’s not advised to go out on the battlefield with nothing to cover and protect your feet. Imagine being in the middle of a war, and you have on every other part of your armor but your shoes. This battlefield can be full of soldiers, exposed weapons, bodies, possible traps, poisonous plants, and other hidden things that you, as a barefoot soldier, now have to be cautious of as you walk. Rather than keeping your eyes up and forward, you’d now have to walk with your eyes down and up to protect your path and yourself.
Here’s an anecdote: when I was younger, I used to look down when I’d walk. Never forward, never up, just down at my feet all the time. I’d watch the ground intently, as if it was going anywhere. When I’d be with my mom, she’d tell me to hold my head up as I walked. This would be especially true in the grocery store. Most of the time, because I wouldn’t be seeing where I’m going, what’s in front of me, and what’s around me, I had a bad habit of walking into things, including her… with the grocery cart. She would not be very pleased and the glare she’d give me would say it all. I needed to look up.
Now, a grocery store is not a battlefield, and I was definitely wearing shoes when I was with her. But I hope you understand what I’m saying: it’s hard to watch the ground and where you’re going at the same time. And sometimes we have to make a choice to look up and look forward or continue managing our every step. We can pay attention to what’s in front of us or we can pay attention to what’s underfoot. We can try to do both at the same time, but we might not be as successful trying to balance it all.
With the shoes of peace, God’s perfect peace, we can move with quiet assurance… but this peace can only follow the righteousness of God. This is for good reason too: the Lord’s righteousness (being that He is right in all of His ways) results in the peace we need to move forward in the way He calls and leads us to go. We can take step after step with our eyes forward, pressing on toward the mark of the prize won for us in Christ Jesus. We step, reminding ourselves that we are covered and lifted up by the One who promised to do so when we make Him our refuge.
And as we walk and go in peace, we can move in faith knowing that we are victorious because the end has already been decided and accomplished.
So, how do we put on the peace of God?
It all starts with the truth we believe about God because whatever truth we believe will always affect what we believe about His righteousness. When we have on the truth and the righteousness of God, we are then clothed in the peace of God — think of the armor as the heavenly garment we receive when we’re made new. Our Father does clothe us, and we can actively reflect that in our atmosphere. We can surround ourself with the truth of God and who He is by reading and meditating on His word and His promises. We can cover ourselves with His Word by meditating in our heart about His righteousness, especially in judgement of who we are (i.e. he looks upon us through the sacrifice of Christ and not through our sin). When we accept Christ, our Father only sees us as holy, He doesn’t see us through a lens of unholiness. This can also look like believing, receiving, and accepting when He tells us who and whose we are to Him.
So, when we’ve come to those conclusions, the shoes of peace are very similar. Consider the Word of God has many a scripture that explains who God helps us to move by lifting us up, picking us up, even calling on his angels concerning each of us to lift us up. He reminds us that no harm will come to us, even the trouble we experience cannot truly cause us any harm. Not only that, but we find peace in His presence. We put on the shoes of peace by reminding ourselves of these things.
First that God is good. Second that He is for us. Then, that He is faithful. And when we know and believe He is faithful, when we put that on our mind and understand that His faithfulness keeps us and will always be with us as we go, then we can trust that the shoes of peace surely do cover us in the face of our enemies as we stand and move forward in battle.
