Wednesday, January 13, 2016
…and the body armor of God’s righteousness. Ephesians 6:14b (NLT)
In His
sermon on the Mount of Olives Jesus said we would be blessed; we would be happy
to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
He said we should seek the righteousness of the Kingdom of God first,
and worry about material things later.
What is
this righteousness
we’re supposed to seek? It’s certainly
not self-righteousness;
that even sounds bad.
The word “righteous”
comes from a basic verb which means to
show. In a religious sense or
application it means to stand before God with your heart open and on
display. There is nothing hidden; your
heart is on display so God can inspect you.
Is that a
comfortable idea?
Each of
us has at least a few things in our life that, if it were known by our
neighbors, friends or family (especially our church family), we would die of shame.
How do I
know that?
I don’t
have a crystal ball, but I do have a human heart. God knows that the flesh lives inside us
all. And when we stand before Him there
is nothing hidden. At all!
Most of
us know this to be true from experience – and the rest of us could guess from
sheer human intuition – that it is not a wonderful prospect to stand before a
righteous and holy God without some super-asbestos holy shield to protect us
from judgment.
The
breastplate (or body armor) covers the vitals, the heart. Having a breastplate of righteousness can
only happen when your heart has been cleansed, when you’ve been forgiven of sin
and made to stand righteous, openly on show for God.
David
prayed:
Search me, O God, and
know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you….
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you….
Psalms
139.23-24a(NLT)
When it's
like that, beloved, Satan’s darts are way out of range.
A fellow
Christian once accused me of being uncaring and cold towards him and his
family. He then widened it to include
the whole church (and probably the whole of Western civilization!). I told him that I believed he was
misunderstanding me, but that I would pray for God to help me understand.
I did go
to prayer, and while God affirmed to my heart that I really did care for and
love this brother in Christ and his family, there were some other things in
that area that needed my attention. When
I shared this with the brother, I could stand with the breastplate of
righteousness. I had stood honestly
before God, and Satan could not use this rift of understanding to break that
church apart.
He tries to do that, you know.
For You Today
Put on God’s
body armor, the breastplate of righteousness; have a clean heart before God.
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