Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

If you have faith, you don't belong in the defeated camp at all. You have no position there, you have no place there, and you have no business there. Why? Because this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. In other words, if you have faith, you have automatically overcome the world.

You see, the world is used to smallness and average-type living, but God is challenging you and me to move into the realm of faith. What you believe will affect how you live and your life experience more than anything else. That's why Paul told the Church to put on the shield of faith above all else.

Faith is such a critical thing because you can find yourself in Church following Jesus, but when, for all practical purposes and intents, you no longer believe. Life can put you in a corner and try to squeeze faith out of you. You see, our faith is not challenged in peaceful times. For some people, it's the pain of life; the things life throws at you can cause you to stop believing or doubt.

The older you grow, the more in danger your faith is. It's almost as if faith is invasively proportional to time; that's why many people's faith gets shipwrecked over time. That's also why Jesus used children as an example to follow in faith; life has not yet walloped them with rejection, sickness, disappointment, retakes, and heartbreaks.

That's why I've concluded that the older you grow and the longer you are in Christ, the more radical you have to intentionally become: you can't leave your faith in the same place as the years go by. You must become very radical and unreasonable in your faith.