Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus but showed great humility in standing in the background to allow the focus to be all about Jesus. Everytime that God speaks to Joseph, he responds immediately with faith and trust. Joseph was engaged to Mary but when he found out she was pregnant his first thought was to break the engagement, but instead, he obeyed the words of God and followed God's agenda. We need to follow God's agenda and not ours. In becoming a Christian we need to realise that we are a sinner and that we need to be forgiven. We give up our own rights to follow Jesus and we need to follow Him without conditions.

Prayer enables us to be soldiers for Jesus. With prayer we can defeat Satan because we are always in communion with God. Our prayers need to include praise, thanks and confession and not just requests for our needs. We need to watch and be alert to Satan's plans and always keep praying for God's victory in our lives or the lives of others as we pray for all of God' people.

We are told in this passage to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Satan is powerful and we are told to live wisely and make the most of every opportunity to share the good news of Jesus. Salvation is available to everyone who accepts Jesus as their Saviour and can only be given by Jesus. The helmet is assurance of our future salvation. We are reminded in Hebrews 11:1, "that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see".

As Christians, we have Jesus, who is greater than anything we might have to face in this world. Jesus is our salvation and He is the truth. Truth is not found from what we see in this world but is found in God's Word. We need to know this truth so that we can be ready to battle anything that Satan may throw at us. As we our live our lives and witness to others, we are to be people who are walking in the truth. When we accept Jesus into our life, we receive His righteouness. Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, we now have a direct relationship with God.

What does it mean to be a Christian today? Unfortunately, this word has lost a lot of its power and the world would see the word 'Christian' in a number of different ways. Love is another word that has lost a lot of its power. Love, though, is the very foundation of being a Christian and Jesus reinforced this on many occassions. As Christians, we are to love God totally and love others completely. This passage shows the unconditional love that the Samaritan man had for the injured man, by putting the wellbeing of the stranger ahead of his own needs. The challenge for us to today is to do likewise in our daily lives.