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I'm reading (slowly) this old book called "The Christian in Complete Armour" by the puritan William Gurnall. It's really good.  This is just a snippet of what I read today:

"Only an ignorant soul is foolish enough to ride out of his castle unarmed during a siege.  He obviously has not studied the enemy, or he would know what peril lies beyond his gates.  To make matters even worse, if he fights without putting on Christ, he must fight in the dark.  The apostle writes, 'Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord' (Ephesians 5:8).  As a child of light, you who are Christians may be in the dark from time to time concerning some truth or promise. But you always have a spiritual eye which the Christless person lacks.  The unregenerate man is always too ignorant to resist Satan, whereas the Christian's knowledge of the truth pursues and brings back the soul even when taken prisoner by a temptation."

Putting on the armor is a daily thing.  You don't just put it on once and be done with it.  The longer my walk with Christ the more I find I need His Word - throughout the day.  Although some of it is in my mind and I can recall it to memory as needed, I'm needing more and more to be listening to it, reading it or hearing it preached - and not just on Sunday.

This is one reason I'm thankful for technology.  There, I said it. I'm usually pretty critical of technology - or rather, the importance that technology seems to have in the average life these days.  But when I pop open my itunes and listen to a sermon of a Godly preacher from a church in a different state without blinking an eye, I am thankful!

Anyway, back to the armor.  Do I walk out of my castle unarmed?  Sometimes I think I do.

Here's another thought from the book:

"Christian, take special care not to trust in the armour of God, but in the God of the armour.  All your weapons are only 'mighty through God' (2 Corinthians 10:4).  The ark was the means of Israel's safety, but when the people began to glory in it instead of in God Himself, it hastened their overthrow.  Just so, duties and ordinances, gifts and graces, are havens for the soul's defense; but they must be kept in their proper place.  Satan trembles as much as the Philistines at the ark, to see a soul diligent in the use of his 'graces', i.e., patience, temperance, virtue, etc. But when the creature trusts more in them than in the Lord, he is on shaky ground."

Good stuff. Trust in the God of the armour - but still put it on! Be prepared for the enemy crouches, ready to find us at our weakest moment - temptation comes and, unprepared, we give in.