Armor of God--the Belt

Ephesians 6:11-18 says,"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 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. 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 the 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."

My daughter just recently decided to give her life to Jesus. Then we all began working with her on what that means. One of her older sisters started teaching her how to "be safe from Satan" and was using the scripture quoted above.

You know, so many things are used over and over to teach kids about the Bible and I just become sort of numb to them. I think of them as "kids' stories" rather than the Word for me that they are. And when I actually read (or overhear someone reading) these scriptures it will amaze me how much truth there is in them.

So I'm listening to this being read to my 6 yr old and thinking about how to explain it to her. Boy does that make scripture come alive! (One of my goals is to someday re-write the Bible in my own words--just for me. I haven't gotten very far yet, but someday . . .)

Armor is something we use to protect and defend ourselves, right? So I began to really look at each piece. I was going to write about it all at once, but it was getting way too long. So I'm breaking it down piece by piece.

The belt of truth. The Ten Commandments clearly teach us not to lie. This isn't just to give us a rule to follow. Truth protects us. And when I looked at what the Roman belt is, I found that it isn't just something to hold your pants up. It was a piece of armor that went all the way around with leather strips that hung down and protected the groin area.



This, to a man, would be a very important thing. Ever know a man who didn't instinctively want to protect his groin? That's how important Truth should be to us.

The belt also holds the dagger guard. I found this interesting since the sword is the Word of God. We have nothing to hold our sword if we aren't first guarded by the Truth.