Never Ending Praise The Lord

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.”

SURPRISE!

I’m back…

I’m finally returning to ‘The Armor Of God’ series [Buckle Up, Buttercup – Never Ending Praise The Lord] and I have to say… it’s almost like I needed to experience some major spiritual warfare for this next part to really click.

These past several weeks have been pretty difficult in so many ways. There has been several moments where I had to pray about and check my belt of truth and my breastplate of righteousness. As we delve into this part, I’m hoping to explain the connection.

I always thought our most vital organ was our heart. Afterall, if it ceases to beat and pump blood to other areas, we’re pretty much toast right? Imagine my surprise when our brain was actually listed as number one!

Truthfully, I had a little bit of a ‘duh’ moment when i realized why that’s true, but for the sake of this devotion, I think we can all agree that our hearts are still pretty vital, right? So let’s talk about the breastplate of righteousness and what it has to do with our hearts.

Both Roman and Israelite soldiers wore a heavy piece of armor that covered their chest and vital organs like the heart and lungs. It was usually made of bronze or chain mail and could weigh anywhere from 50-90 pounds! That is super heavy and when you think of how much the other pieces weighed, it makes you wonder how they were even able to breathe, much less move in battle! I’m not sure I’d even be able to focus on the task with all that stuff on me.

Interesting to note, they also needed help putting this piece of armor on.

Luckily, the spiritual armor doesn’t weigh that much, and yet it’s so solid and protective.

You know what held that breastplate in place? If you guessed a belt- give yourself a gold star! If that belt was loose, the breastplate came right off. Imagine running in battle and all of a sudden, 90 pounds of chain mail just comes right off. Not only do I believe I would stumble and fall, but I would be exposed to imminent danger.

Our breastplate of righteousness does not come from our own righteousness, but from God’s. This protects our hearts from evil and deception. Without this part of our spiritual armor, we are not just vulnerable to Satan’s attacks, we’re open prey. His attacks aren’t always physical, although they can sometimes show up that way. Read the book of Job to see how Satan’s attacks come in the form of doubt, shame, discouragement, spiritual compromise and even physical discomfort.

So when my world seemed to be falling apart the last several weeks, I was heavy hearted, discouraged, fearful, angry and even prideful and vain! [see? Even I struggle!] The thing is, I clearly did not have my breastplate of righteousness on, and even if I did, I also didn’t have my belt of truth on! So, the enemy acted accordingly and took his big opportunity.

What a blessing it is that God is so good at reminding us when we need to pause and pray. He’s also great at nudging us to seek his wisdom. In this case, I needed to make sure I put my spiritual armor on.

We are credited as believers with HIS righteousness, not our own. Apart from HIM, we can do nothing. So look to scripture and remember, heavy is the armor, and heavy is the armor of God, the battle belongs to him but he gives us his perfect armor for protection.