Do you remember the first time you fell in love? Maybe it began with feeling attracted to someone; maybe you became acquainted, then friends, and then one day your eyes met, something sparked between you. You were in love! Your heart was engaged!
Or maybe it was when you first said “yes” to Jesus. Your sins confessed, miraculously forgiven. You felt clean, renewed, open to possibility. The world around looked brighter! You had met the generous, amazing love of God. Your heart was engaged!
King Solomon, that wisest of men, cautions us, “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) Does that remind you of Jesus’ words, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him”. By this he meant the Spirit (John 7:38)
How do you guard this precious heart?
With love comes vulnerability, the openness to be hurt. I know this right now as we've just had to have our beloved dog, with whom we shared life and love for nearly thirteen years, put to sleep. Oh, how my heart is hurting. My home feels empty.
Yet, that is just a dog. How easy it is to love and be loved by a dog! Their love is so unconditional. How could anyone not love a delightful puppy, cuddling up so enthusiastically. What? Another puddle? Outside quickly! Or the time I came downstairs with my friend to find one of her favorite boots in tatters! Oh, no, bad dog!
But love with humans is much more challenging, more easily damaged, as is our love with God. Expectations crowd in and open the door to disappointment and hurt. And tht can open the dorr to the possiblilty of providing a landing ground for the enemy.
As we've been doing this study on spiritual warfare my mind keeps going back to C S Lewis's delightful book “The Screwtape Letters” where a senior demon is helping his nephew learn how to distract a new human convert from his growing relationship with God. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do. It will open your eyes to some of the subtle ways Lewis saw the demonic forces working, even sometimes appearing as an angel of light.
So, how do we guard our precious hearts?
Paul's piece of armor to cover our heart is the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness? We've met that word over and over in the past year as we've unpacked Jesus’ beatitudes and his sermon on the mount.
Isaiah 59: 17 tells us that God put on righteousness as a breastplate.
Doing a little research, I discovered that the breastplate of the High Priest in the Old Testament was made of 12 stones representing the 12 tribes, and it served as a medium through which God provided directions to the Jewish nation. It had a pocket in it called the Urim in which was a piece of parchment bearing one of God's sacred names.
Exodus 29:30 tells us “Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord.”
So here the priests were, asking the Lord each time they needed a decision made as to what God wanted them to do.
And here, we too have our breastplate--ours is the breastplate of righteousness with the name of our Lord Jesus Christ stamped on it. Our hearts are protected by His righteousness. We have His presence to help us make right decisions for our lives.
What does that mean in practical terms? Can our hearts deceive us? That reminds me of Jeremiah talking of the heart as being desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), asking the question of who can understand it. I think our reality can be that, when we want something enough, we can tell ourselves it is fine. So, Paul is encouraging us to put on the breastplate of righteousness, to invite Jesus to be the one who can lead us into the right decision—sometimes the little things count as much or more than the big—because all those little decisions often lead to the big. Let Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life be your protection at all times.
(As a side note, the breastplate is attached to the belt of truth which we'll unpack next week.)
John 15:5 reminds us that without Christ, we can do nothing. We are “in Christ” held by his righteousness. Nothing we do or don’t do can change that.
Let’s circle back to love.
Remember that Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37–40). And remember what we learned about righteousness as Jesus commanded it: to live rightly towards God and your neighbor. So, we are protected by Christ’s righteousness from the attacks of the enemy. But we are also to hunger and thirst to know how to live out that righteousness in our daily life—how to live in right relationship with others. His part; our part.
Remember also that our warfare is not just defensive.
We are not just sitting safely protected by Christ’s righteousness. We are fighting against the kingdom of darkness by our righteous behavior toward others.
Over and over, in each of his letters
to the new churches, Paul encourages them to live with one another in love.
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2)
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
Imagine each of the times you respond in these ways to others that you are taking back enemy territory for God! Our lives matter, even in the little things. Imagine the angels as your cheerleaders! Hear heaven’s applause as you walk faithfully your path with God.
Another facet:
My friend Tami recently shared insight into the story of David when Saul gave David his coat of armor, and David couldn't even walk around in it. My friend questioned whether she was trying to fit an armor that was never intended for her to wear. ‘Not unlike David, the armor of others was never meant to fit us. We've each been beautifully gifted with "skin" that fits. I will continue to love big at home, and abroad, -that is how He made me. And. I will grow comfortable in "my skin." ‘
Put on the armor of righteousness that God has given you, that fits your gifting. Live out of the love God has poured into your heart. Be fully who you are. Show up in your world today and confound those forces of darkness that are against you.
Let us leave behind self-judgements and self-doubts. Let us let go of comparisons. Let us give up discouragement and disappointment. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith”. (Hebrews 12:1,2)
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