The Breastplate

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

THE BREASTPLATE

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 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. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 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.

NIV

Now that our belt of truth is buckled firmly around our waist and we are secure in knowing our trousers won’t fall down, we need to put in God’s breastplate of righteousness. It cannot be any clearer than this breastplate protects our hearts. Of course, in the life of a Roman soldier, it would have protected most of his vital organs, but as we see this breastplate of righteousness, we know the only righteousness is Jesus Christ, for He is our righteousness. Without any doubt, we can say that we do not have any righteousness of our own, so we must put on the breastplate of righteousness, Jesus. Once again God is clothing us in Christ. Jesus protects our hearts. We know that Jesus said that what the mouth speaks is from what the heart is full of. Therefore, if our heart is full of ourselves, always thinking about what we have done, how much work we are doing for the Lord, boasting is the right word to describe that person whose heart is full of themselves, thus, having an evil heart because of not wearing both the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. However, when we allow God to provide our clothes, not from our measly little closet, but from the vastness of the storehouse of God, we are clothed properly. Putting on this breastplate over our hearts is having Jesus protecting our hearts, filling us with his Spirit, filling our hearts with himself, keeping our hearts safe, purifying our hearts, for the Spirit could not dwell in an impure place. That is why He sanctifies us, sets us apart for Himself, and gives us all of Jesus to clothe ourselves in so in one sense with all the armor we are ready to be a soldier of God. Let us put on this breastplate firmly kept in place by the belt of truth. Then our hearts will be right, and our mouths will speak of all the glories of God, and all His majesty and power. We will speak from our hearts about Jesus who protects our hearts.