Tag: spiritual powers

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The Belt of Truth

“Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,” Ephesians 6:14a

The belt was an important part of the soldier’s armor as it held the breastplate in place as well as carried the sheath for the sword. It is no wonder Paul mentions it first. In John 14:6, Jesus is comforting His disciples as He talked about leaving them by telling them that He is the way, the truth, and the life. So what does Jesus mean when He said he was the truth? Jesus is telling His disciples and us that He is The Authority regarding spiritual wisdom and reality. If you want to know how to live a spiritual life that is focused on the truth, then following Jesus is the answer.

Through His word, God teaches us how to think, how to feel, how to react to situations and how to live in accordance to His will. He made us to be in a relationship with Him, to live in such a way that we are walking in His will. We can only do that when we know the Truth about who God is and we find that out by studying the Bible and commentaries. The truth is very important, it is where we all need to begin in our walk of faith and without the truth, the rest of the armor falls apart. It is hard to know who we are in Christ, which we will talk about tomorrow, if we don’t know the truth about who Christ is. Our armor needs the belt of truth to connect the rest of it together.

Do you know who God is? God is the creator of heaven and earth, He is the reason we are alive and able to seek Him. He created us to be in fellowship with Him, He is our Father and we are His children. Following God is the only true way to live and is the only way we are able to live in eternity forever with Him.

I implore you this morning, to dig into God’s word and find out for yourself who God is and what the truth means to you. For me, knowing that the devil is the father of lies and that God is the father of truth helps me to stay focused on making sure my thoughts line up with what I know is in God’s word about who He is and how He wants me to live my life so that I can glorify and honor Him in all that I do. Trusting God, who is the truth, is the best and only path that we should be on in this life. I pray that as you search God’s word, that you find out the wonderful truth about God and build your walk with Him on that truth, which is a sure foundation. Have a wonderful day.

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The Armor of God

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:10-11 NIV

In this chapter of Ephesians, Paul was giving instructions to the people of Ephesus about how to behave but also about how to fight when it comes to the devil and the fight for our souls. He begins in verse 10 to encourage them to be strong, to rely on God and His power because God is all powerful and can do anything. As a child of God, we each are able to ask God for help knowing He is there for us. Paul also warns the Ephesians about being aware of the devil and his schemes. The devil was just as active in Paul’s time as he is in our time, and we have a God who is just as strong today as He was in Paul’s time.

God knows the devil and what the devil wants, which is to take everyone away from God. So in addition to the Holy Spirit, God gave us tools or weapons that we can use to defend ourselves against the devil. In the following verses, Paul explains the tools/weapons that God gave us and he does it by pulling them all together and calling them the armor of God. The armor that Paul is describing is spiritual in nature, which is what we need when we are going up against the devil, a spiritual being. Sometimes spiritual concepts can be too abstract for us to truly grasp so God has Paul use an analogy to help clarify all of the spiritual ways we can defeat the devil’s plans to lure us away from God.

Paul uses something the people of Ephesus would have understood all too well, the armor of a Roman solider. This analogy is still useful today because although we do not have Roman soldiers walking around us all day long, we do know what the armor looked like. Also, we know that our soldiers today wear armor or pieces of gear which protect them in much the same way as the pieces of armor that a Roman soldier wore, protected him. In the verses that follow verses 10 and 11, Paul then links each weapon to a piece of the armor in a way of taking the spiritual tool/weapon and making it tangible so that everyone could visualize how to use that spiritual tool.

How blessed are we that our God is willing to give us the tools we need to fight against our enemy after all the times that we have let Him down. I am amazed at how God keeps forgiving me, a sinner, each time I ask for forgiveness and He hasn’t walked away from me saying He has had enough. We are all imperfect but we are not too much for God to deal with. He created us, loves us and is willing to support us, as a loving parent does, each step of the way. He will walk beside us and guide us, if we let Him, which is the key to all of it. We have to let Him, because God did not create robots, He gave us free will. Free Will enables us to be able to choose to have a relationship with God or not, to choose to want Him in our lives or not and choose to love Him or not.

So, which choice have you made? I have made mine and I have chosen God! You still have time to make a choice, which one will it be? Have a wonderful day.