{"id":4524,"date":"2026-06-04T02:09:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/?p=4524"},"modified":"2026-05-31T22:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T22:16:14","slug":"take-up-and-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/take-up-and-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Up and Use"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>Thursday, June 4<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Take Up and Use <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.<\/em><strong> Ephesians 6:12<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>God has given every believer a shield of faith, but it is not enough to simply know that it exists. A shield hanging at a soldier&#8217;s side offers no protection in battle. It must be taken up and used. Many Christians know God&#8217;s promises. They know that God is faithful, that He is their provider, healer, protector, and deliverer. Yet when difficulties arise, fear, doubt, and worry often take center stage. The shield is available, but it remains unused.<\/p>\n<p>The same principle applies to God&#8217;s Word. Owning a Bible does not transform our lives any more than owning a shield protects a soldier. The power is released when we open it, read it, believe it, and apply it. God&#8217;s Word builds our faith, and faith becomes the shield that extinguishes the enemy&#8217;s attacks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today<\/strong>: <em>Father, thank You for giving me everything I need to stand firm against the attacks of the enemy. Forgive me for the times I have known Your promises but failed to apply them. Help me to take up the shield of faith daily, trusting Your Word above my fears, doubts, and circumstances. Amen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday, June 4 Take Up and Use For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 God has given every believer a shield of faith, but it is not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4530,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4524\/revisions\/4530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}