Armor of God – Belt of Truth
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Eph 6:10-18
Did you ever play the game “Truth or Dare” growing up? Which option were you most likely to choose?
I remember playing this game at sleepovers. A group of girls, sleeping bags arranged in a circle with all of us sitting around and playing silly sleepover games. It was hard to decide between truth or dare. I was afraid some deep dark secret would come out if I choose truth, like “do you have a crush on Randy?” And of course I did, so did every other girl in the 6th grade, but I did not want to admit it! Or maybe I would choose dare and take a chance I would be dared to do something embarrassing, like running through the snow barefoot, or worse.
Lucky for us God does not engage us in trivial games when it comes to His truth. His truth is our secret weapon. We can rely on it to get us out of trouble, and it is on our side. Our identity as truth bearers should be the first thing we put on every morning.
The belt played a crucial role in the soldier’s armor; the belt held the scabbard, which holds the sword. Imagine running out into battle and not having a weapon? Also, there is the apparent role of the belt holding up your pants or in those days your robe. How embarrassing to be de-pantsed as you go into battle! That is a dare only the devil would make.
A Warrior of Hope will use both sides of truth in battle. The first side of truth is God’s truth, what He says about us. It is easy to believe the lies of the enemy when he whispers in our ears lies about our worth and our salvation. God’s truth will shine a light upon the dark lies of the enemy, revealing we are worthy as children of God, set apart by the God who knew us before we were born. We will stand confidently in our salvation because we are believers in the name of God and have the right to be known as children of God!
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
We also have “our” integrity, our personal truth. If we are going to prevail in battle than we must be truthful before God. This means we cannot be living a life of duplicity, trying to live in two worlds. We must be willing to put off the old nature and put on a new nature.
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” Romans 6:6
As we have now equipped ourselves with the first piece of armor, the one worn closest to our bodies, let remember holding God’s truth tight to us and allowing it to surround us, we can remain in His Word and be confident we will be equipped for spiritual battle.
Heavenly Father shine the light of your truth into our hearts. Show us the truth of who we are in you, through salvation and let us stand strong as we move forward on the battleground. We rest in the comfort of Your Word as we sit at Your feet, serving only one master. Thanks be to the God of truth. Amen
