I know many people who love to travel. My mom is one of them. Put her behind the wheel of a car and she will drive all day long and enjoy driving. I know other people who hate to travel. We call them homebodies.

I used to walk everywhere I went because I didn’t have a driver’s license. Being legally blind made it dangerous for me to be behind the wheel of a car. So I walked and ran everywhere I went. I always enjoyed walking before I became paralyzed.

In the armor of God in Ephesians 6, Paul begins from the soldier’s belt to his breastplate that covers his vital organs. But then he looks down and notices the soldier’s boots or shoes. Without these boots, the soldier could not traverse the battlefield to fight.

So he links the shoes with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). But what in the world is he talking about? It is the gospel about Jesus that brings peace because Jesus died on the cross to make peace between God and us (Ephesians 2:14-16).

Our fee take us everywhere we want to go. But more than that, they can be used for God’s glory. How would people hear the gospel of peace if we didn’t go to them and tell them about it? Jesus said in the Great Commission that we should make disciples and baptize as we go (Matthew 28:19).

Because of the background of our battlefield, the spiritual realm where the devil has stolen people away from the God who made them, one of our greatest weapons is to go and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is this gospel that enlivens people and gives them the ability to enter God’s kingdom.

And so our feet must be protected. They are protected by being ready to share the good news of Jesus Christ. When we are prepared to share Jesus’ good news, we can’t do it by sitting around. We’ve got to go to where the people are.

Many of the pieces of armor are defensive. The breastplate protects the soldier from glances of the sword. The helmet protects his head. And the boots can protect his feet and legs. But there are also some weapons like the sword

I contend that the boots or the shoes for readiness can also be an offense of weapon for believers in the midst of spiritual battle in this world. It is the gospel that brings light to this dark world. The gospel of Jesus shines in the hearts of people who need him more than anything else. The gospel breaks chains and sets the prisoners free. It is a dangerous weapon against the devil that he cannot refute or overpower.

And this is why we need to pray for readiness to bring the gospel of peace to the world. We do it one soul at a time. One life at a time is changed. The shoes may have protected the soldier but preparing to share the gospel does damage to the gates of Hell.

So how can we be ready to share the gospel? It begins with study. We read the Word of God and we know how to tell our story about what Jesus has done for us. Jesus defended himself against the devil by using Scripture when he was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4). So we must know God’s Word to be effective.

And then we must go. We must pick up our feet and walked to the person. It does us no good to sit around and know how to share without going and sharing. This is why we pray for our feet to be ready to go and our voices to be ready to speak Jesus’ good news into the lives of hurting people.

But we don’t only pray that we go. There are at least two ways to apply the shoes of the gospel of peace to our situations. The first is to pray for the salvation of our family members. If you have family members that don’t know Jesus, it doesn’t start with a conversation with them. It begins on our knees in prayer for their lives and their hearts to be open.

So the first step to praying for the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace is to pray for our family members who need Jesus to set them free. Second, we ask God for divine appointments. What is a divine appointment? It is when the Spirit provides the opportunity and prompts us to share the gospel with someone.

When I pray for divine appointments I ask God to help me see people the way he does. I ask him to reveal to me the person that hurts and needs Jesus. I ask him to reveal the person who is at the end of their rope. I even ask him to reveal to me the person whose heart is so torn and hard against him.

Then I ask the Holy Spirit to open that heart and lay fertile soil for me to share my story of how Jesus has changed my life. I pray that God made ready for every situation I might encounter in my divine appointments. I pray that he gives me the words to speak to that person for that moment.

See, I am not the only one who must be prepared to share the gospel. The heart of the person I speak to must also be ready to receive the message. And only the Holy Spirit can do that. So I ask him to prepare them to see as he prepares me to share.

That is how you put on the shoes of readiness for the gospel of peace. It all starts with prayer and preparation. Prepare as much as you can but the Bible tells us that God will speak through us what needs to be said (Matthew 10:19; Luke 12:11-12).

So in this spiritual battle as soon as we walk out into the world, our feet must be prepared to go and share the gospel. We get ready and to begin looking for those divine appointments. But it all begins when we pray for the readiness of the gospel of peace.

Leave a comment and tell me how you prepare to share the gospel of Jesus with a hurting world.