What are you wearing right now? What do you wear to bed? What do you wear to the gym? To church? On a date?
Right now, I'm babysitting my assoc. pastor's adorable son, Tate. With that said, I'm wearing an over-sized ESPN shirt that I won when I met the NY Rangers' Carl Hagelin and comfortable sweatpants. No makeup, no socks and best of all, no worries. And I would pretty much wear this anywhere, if that answers that other questions.
But I always have another outfit on at the same time, decked out in grace and strength, called the Armor of God.
Ephesians 6:12 says that our battle is not of flesh and blood but evil rulers of the unseen world. Some workout gear would help if you were running away from a flesh and blood thief, but this is a different thief... the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10) And trust me, unless you have on every piece of the Armor, he will. But if you do put on the Armor, after the battle, you will stand firm. I am a big fan of the word after. Who cares about before? What's important is after. After the shock, after the pain, after the fight, after you've given it all you've got. After the battle you will stand firm. It's in the Bible. It's a promise. God doesn't break promises.
Okay, Jackie, why are you telling me this? Glad you asked.
Because it's His armor, not ours. His strength, not ours. His protection, not ours. But we still need to put up the fight.
You cannot do it on your own, take it from someone who has tried. Apart from God you can do nothing. But with Him you can do anything.
First, in the amazing passage in Ephesians, the Word says, "Put on the belt of truth, and the body armor of God's righteousness."
I'll get into the belt of truth later, but right now I want to focus on the body armor of God's righteousness. Other translations say the 'breastplate of righteousness.' Tomato, tomato. Same thing. Either way, for the most part, body armor and breastplates are to protect your heart above all things. If you're wounded there, it's man down without a fight.
In Romans 3, the Word says we are made right, or righteous, with God by faith in Jesus Christ. We need to protect that righteousness with body armor out the wazoo because the next verse says, "For we ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And it's true. Pastors, me, my church, the pope, Peter and Paul. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And the verse after that says that although we are this way, God has declared us righteous to Him.
But the devil would love to tell us otherwise. He makes it his job. He's the king of lies, and he's good at what he does.
To me, the opposite of righteousness is condemnation. Nothing puts a strain on your relationship with your amazing Heavenly Father like thinking you're not right with Him because of the devil's condemnation. I've said before in another post that the devil is the whispering voice that tells you to do something you know you shouldn't, and then is the first one to say, "God saw that." Nothing strains our relationship with God like condemnation, because in Jesus there is NO condemnation. It is a lie from the devil himself and we need to protect our right to be righteous in God because that ONE shot, that ONE fiery dart of the enemy straight to the heart will take you out and keep you out.
Next we have the shoes: "For shoes, put on the peace that comes with the Good News so that you will be fully prepared."
As I read this, I kinda freaked out. (No judging. Jesus is watching.) Prepare? For what?
Then as I was thinking on it, I realized that the Good News of Jesus literally sets us free. It breaks chains. It is the only truth in this entire world. The only way to fight off the lies of this world, the lies in your heart and the lies of the enemy is the Word, is the Good News.
Then I realized: When you're running for your life, literally...When the enemy, when the devil himself is chasing you...When your temptations are running after you like they need to hop on your back and whisper in your ear just to survive (because they do), how will you run without the right shoes?
I really stress getting into the word; if you think just going to church on Sunday and then maybe watching another sermon one day of the week is good to help you completely win the battle, you're wrong. You'll bend down to tie your shoes, enemy closely behind you, only to realize that all you've got on your feet are flip flops. Have you ever tried to run in flip flops?
Bottom line: You're not prepared.
Be prepared.
Read the word.
Put on your Good News Nike's and show the devil who's boss. (God.)
We are to put on the shield of faith to stop the enemy's arrows from even reaching us. This is important. Before even using the breastplate of righteousness, the enemy has to get through that first shield of faith. Keep your faith firm and strong. If you keep that shield of faith down, there is nothing stopping the enemy from getting into your heart. In my opinion, this needs to be the strongest form of protection of them all.
We are to put on salvation as our helmet so that the enemy's arrows won't get in our heads and tell us we'll never be good enough... salvation has made us new! Don't listen to that poo poo head.
Here's the best part: the second part of Ephesians 6:17 says, "...and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."
First and foremost, the only way we fight the enemy off, essentially, is the Word.
When the enemy lies and tells you God has left you, we fight him with Psalm 139.
When the enemy tells you you have no purpose, we fight him with Ephesians 1:10-11.
The word of God is the only weapon we should, and are told, to use and thank goodness that it's the most effective one out there.
As I said before, I'm going to get back into the belt of truth. The word is often called the truth. And it's right; it's the only truth in the world. It's only right that it goes hand in hand with the belt of truth. After all, aren't swords always drawn from the belt of the warrior.
So are you going to put on the armor, or are you going to run in flip flops?
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