Belt of Truth

 

So here is the start of the study on the armor of God. I hope it blesses you.

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.

    When we think of essential battle equipment, belts don’t necessarily come first to mind. Vital to every soldier was this belt from which all tools of battle hung. This belt also held the soldier's robe together. To the Christian soldier, a belt of truth means that we are surrounded by "honesty," "truthfulness," "integrity," and "sincerity" that every part of our life is governed by truth. Dishonesty brings defeat! If we are not belted, if our life is not held in by truth, any type of dishonesty will bring defeat to our lives. But then again, we may think of belts in terms of a modern-day belt, a device used to hold up pants. So let’s think of a weight lifter...and the belt they wear to help give them strength and support so they don’t hurt the core part of their body. The support that the belt of truth gives us is to help give us strength in our spiritual core. This means we must surround ourselves with truth and not allow anything other than the truth to enter our thinking on situations. We must ask God to keep us undeceived that we never allow deception to take root within us. Knowing truth liberates us from all possibility of deception and illuminates any darkness in our lives.

    There is a difference between knowing the truth and living in truth. The only truth that sets us free is God’s truth. John 8:31-32 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When we choose to wear or wrap God’s truth around us, it protects us by strengthening our spiritual core being. To secure the belt around our waist, we must come to the source of truth: Jesus. After all, God describes himself as the way, the truth, and the life John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.. We must ask God to equip us and regularly spend time with him in Scripture and in prayer.

    Every day we must combat the lies of the enemy and we do this with God’s truth...binding it to our hearts and wrapping it around us like a belt. This piece of armor protects us against the lies and deceptions of the enemy. Scripture does call Satan the father of lies (John 8:44). The enemy uses lies to confuse people. When confusion begins to work it brings anxiety and fear with it. The enemy's lies completely mess up our thinking and weaken us if we believe them. 1 John 5:19-20 “We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” The belt of truth prevents us from falling prey to the devil’s lies. If we don’t have an understanding of the truth, the rest of the armor is useless. If we have the belt on crooked, we’ll have difficulty gripping the Sword of the Spirit (God’s word) in time, and risk having our more vital organs exposed.

What does truth have to do with a belt?

1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test all things; hold fast to what is good.” As Christians, we are to test all things and then hold on only to that which is good—the truth—discarding all else. We are to be like the Bereans who "searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). If we are not convinced that our principles and beliefs are without exception 100 percent true, how can we expect to accomplish anything?

Proverbs 3:3-4 “Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.” A belt encompasses the waist. Does our conviction to the truth encompass us? As the above scripture notes, the truth must be bound around us and written on our hearts—our conviction must reach beyond an outward show.

What other lessons can we learn from the biblical analogy of having our waist "girded" by a belt?

Luke 12:35-37

Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.

Christ told us to always be watching and ready for His return.

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ...” Peter used an interesting analogy: "Gird up the loins of your mind." This implies tucking in long garments to be ready to move quickly. The New International Version translates it as "prepare your minds for action."

What are the dangers of not wearing the belt?

Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

    The world we live in teaches that truth is what we make it—that good and bad are relative and that there are no absolutes, only equally valid opinions. But the Bible teaches that truth is God's Word—that good and bad are defined by Him and that there are eternal and unchangeable absolutes, uninfluenced by opinions. Paul wrote to the Romans telling them to "not be conformed to this world." Part of that means not buying into a system of belief that says absolute truth is a myth. As Christians, we know both that there is truth and that it is absolute. 2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

    Imagine a belt with a segment missing. No matter how tiny the sliver that isn't there, the belt is still useless. To do its job, it must be one continuous, unbroken piece. Now imagine living a way of life you don't completely agree with. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal—after all, what are a couple minor points that you're not sure about? They are everything. To try to live God's way without total belief in its validity is like trying to hold your sword up with a belt that isn't continuous. Neither will work. Our trust in God and His Word must be solid, without break, or else we will quickly find ourselves without a weapon. No matter how effective the rest of our armor is, we are useless without our sword. We need to be rightly dividing the word of truth—knowing what we believe, and why.

Truth - the Word of God.

Loins - the center and seat of life and the outflow of life.

The reason a lot of Christians are defeated, their minds are wandering, their hearts are divided, their concentration is broken, they have not girded up their spiritual loins to battle. They haven't yielded and focused and calculating the cost and said I'm going to discipline and bring myself under...I'm going to pursue righteousness with all that I am. As the truth of God penetrates your mind it attacks and demolishes the sin it confronts. John 17:17 was what Jesus told us, Mt. 4 He demonstrated it! Jesus said the way we become holy is through the Word

There are seven benefits of wearing His truth:

GOD CLOTHES US WITH PROSPERITY JOSHUA 1:8 [Think of taking the reins from perhaps the greatest leader who ever lived. A man, who could talk to God face to face, led 3 million people for 40 years, a judge, prophet, and priest. What is the prescription to follow such a monumental man? Meditate on the Word!

GOD CLOTHES US WITH FRUITFULNESS PSALM 1:2 [At the front door of the longest book of the Bible is a secret recipe for spiritual success. God wants us to prosper and bear fruit. How? Meditation!

GOD CLOTHES US WITH PEACEFULNESS IN TRIALS PSALM 35:28 No one in scripture has more of their life laid bare than David. His affair, family problems, job stress, people problems, enemies, Satanic attack, and more. Meditate on the Word!

GOD CLOTHES US WITH STABILITY IN ROUGH SEAS PSALM 37:30 Is your boat rocking? Starting to list, sink? What is the sure-fire way to stabilize things? Meditate on the Word!

GOD CLOTHES US WITH REFRESHING WORSHIP IN DRY TIMES PSALM 63:6 Are you running fast and thin? Do your nights and days run together? How many times have you wished for a quiet day at a mountain, seaside, or forest retreat with just your Bible and a cup of coffee? God says, the coffees are on and I’m waiting at every turn of your life. Turn your car, bus, sink, computer workstation, desk, or whatever into an altar. How? By meditating on the Word!

GOD CLOTHES US WITH A LIFELONG TESTIMONY TO GOD’S FAITHFULNESS AS OLD AGE COMES PSALM 71:24 Ever want to end up as sweet as some of the precious saints you know. They die serenely, enduring those last long and pain-filled days Page 13 with strength and peace that only comes from God. Where did they get that in life and into the shadow of death? By meditating on the Word!

GOD CLOTHES US WITH COMFORT IN ADVERSITY PSALM 77:12 Do you feel it is too hard to even go on? Does the enemy seem to be winning? Are the problems multiplying like weeds? God has a solution and it is simple and powerful. What/ Meditating on his Word!

Truth is the way God's saints serve: Josh. 24:14; 1 Sam. 12:24; Truth is written on the hearts of God's saints: Prov. 3:3. Truth is the way God's saints worship: John 4:24, Truth sanctifies God's saints: John 17:17,19. Truth is obeyed by God's saints: Rom. 2:8; Gal. 3:1. Truth rejoices God's saints: 1 Cor. 13:6; Truth is manifested by God's saints: 2 Cor. 4:2. Truth approves God's saints: 2 Cor. 6:7,8. Truth is the language of God's saints: Eph. 4:25; Truth grows as a fruit in God's saints: Eph. 5:9 Truth guards God's saints: Eph. 6:14. Truth is what God's saints meditate upon Phil. 4:8; Truth is loved by God's saints: 2 Thess. 2:10. Truth accompanies God's saints: Tit. 1:1. Truth purifies God's saints: 1 Pet. 1:22. Truth Abides continually with saints, 2 John 2.

    So in closing, Truth is to hold us up, hold us in, and protect us from falling. This belt of truth is much like the restraints we strap around us when we get into one of those dangerous, high-speed twistings, turning roller coaster ride at some amusement park. The belt and bars that hold us are designed to keep us safe no matter how fast the car spins, twists or drops. We are held in. Truth holds us in. God wants us to know the content of truth and live the integrity of truthfulness. Truth means we have the readiness to obey; we have the integrity of commitment to truth; and we are opposed to all deception, dishonesty. We have no loose ends of our life that dangle and trip us up. We are girded, belted, strapped in by truth. Wearing his truth! Well, that's the first piece of armor. And I'll tell you what, each one of them gets better.

Heavenly Father, I know that the truth will set me free. Show me how to gird up the core of my being with YOUR TRUTH so that I don’t fall into deception of any kind. Teach me to not only know the truth but live in it. I pray that you remind me of your truth, when the devil prowls every day, seeking to devour believers and unbelievers with half-truths and deceptions. I pray that you remind me of who you are and the truth of you and of your plan for our lives and world when the world tries to convince me otherwise. Help me to redirect other believers back to the truth, in love, and to accept their direction when they try to help me when I stumble away from the truth. Please help keep the belt of truth fastened around my waist today, so I may be prepared for whatever attacks the devil has for me on the battlefield. Amen.