{"id":6313,"date":"2020-05-07T22:22:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T12:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6313"},"modified":"2020-05-07T22:22:05","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T12:22:05","slug":"the-breastplate-of-righteousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/the-breastplate-of-righteousness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Breastplate of Righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Armour of God Part 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Breastplate of Righteousness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mark Loga<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

In Ephesian Chapter 6, St Paul so\neloquently describes the different pieces of the \u201cwhole armour of God\u201d, that we\nmust gird ourselves with as Christians in order to withstand the power and\nforces of the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thought of placing physical armour can\nbe likened to the Roman soldiers preparing themselves for protection in the\nmidst of battle. The breastplate of righteousness is the second piece of armour\nthat St Paul mentions. For the Roman soldier, the breastplate served as\nprotection for some of the most important parts of the body, in particular the\nheart. Therefore, if a soldier did not wear his breastplate, he was vulnerable\nto an attack that could result in instant death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we see the word \u2018heart\u2019 in our Bible,\nit is often about the inner part of our \u201cminds\u201d or our \u201cinner being\u201d. It is our\nheart that determines who we are. For example David prayed, \u201cLet the words\nof my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,\nmy strength and my redeemer<\/em>\u201d Psalm 19:14. Matthew reminds us, \u201cWhere\nyour treasure is, there your heart will be also<\/em>\u201d Matthew 6:21. Luke,\nthe physician, tells us, \u201cA good man out of the good treasure of his heart\nbrings forth good<\/em>\u201d Luke 6:45. And Solomon encourages us saying, \u201cKeep\nyour heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life<\/em>\u201d Proverbs\n4:23. Our hearts define who we are. Therefore, if the heart serves as the centre\nof our emotions, feelings and our identity as Christians, it\u2019s no wonder that\nSatan, who is crafty, cunning, and evil, would want to attack such a vital organ\nin an attempt to break us down.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Christians in this modern world, we are\nin constant spiritual warfare where the evil one is constantly attacking our\nhearts, therefore we must gird ourselves with the breastplate of righteousness.\nIf we do not protect ourselves with righteousness, we open ourselves up to\nattack from the enemy and can fall into sin and spiritual death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, our sinful nature often gets\nin the way of living an upright life. When we decide to live based on our own\ndesires rather than God\u2019s, we make decisions that are harmful to ourselves and\nothers. Romans 8:6 says, \u201cFor to be carnally minded is death, but to\nbe spiritually minded is life and peace<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the ways the Bible defines righteousness is in terms of God\u2019s commandments: \u201cMy tongue shall speak of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteousness<\/em>\u201d Psalm 119:172. Therefore, it\u2019s clear God\u2019s commandments are righteousness and we can put on this breastplate by obeying God in our lives. It is important to become more aware of the decisions we make, we can determine whether or not they are following God\u2019s Will by actively tuning into his wavelength everyday of our lives. In addition, we can ask Him to give us the strength to live righteously. Ultimately, this will allow us to withstand attacks from the enemy and live in ways that glorify Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Armour of God Part 2 The Breastplate of Righteousness By Mark Loga In Ephesian Chapter 6, St Paul so eloquently describes the different pieces of the \u201cwhole armour of God\u201d, that we must gird ourselves with as Christians in order to withstand the power and forces of the enemy. The thought of placing physical … Continue reading “The Breastplate of Righteousness”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[305,307,144],"class_list":["post-6313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-armour-of-god","tag-protection","tag-righteousness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6313"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6362,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions\/6362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}