I have been talking about spiritual warfare the past few weeks. In Ephesians, Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God to protect against the attacks of the enemy. Tomorrow we will hit the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate was used to protect the vital organs of the body, most notably, the heart.
On a spiritual level, there is a great battle that takes place for a persons heart. God fights to win your heart, while the enemy fights to destroy it. When a believer comes to know Jesus, and as the saying goes, "accepts Jesus into their heart," they place full confidence in the fact that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, making believers blameless before God. The enemy wants all people to believe that they are nothing but a bunch of fallen, messed up people who will never be able to live up to God's standard. If a person believes in their heart that God has an impossible standard, and that they'll always come up short, they'll usually just give up.
That is why Paul tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Protect your heart from the lies of that attack. To be righteous is to be justified and blameless before God, and that IS something you could never be on your own. But the good news is that you are not on your own. We can be righteous before God because of Jesus. It is IN Jesus that we can be righteous before God. As the Scripture says, "He became sin, who knew no sin, so we might become His righteousness!"
The enemy will attack you with guilt and shame, reminding you that you are not worthy. God's Word reminds us that we never were worthy, but that's why Jesus came, and because of what He did on the cross, we are redeemed. He stood in our place and now we are justified before God. AMEN!
So put on the breastplate of righteousness and protect your heart from any attack that attempts to guilt and shame you! You are redeemed!
Josh
Awesome!
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