Day 156: Gird Your Loins

We were talking about sin the other night at a Bible Study, and how we seem to repeat the same familiar sin, over and over and over. I offered a possible reason to the group saying, "We are weak, and the enemy knows where our weakness is, so he keeps going at that place over and over and over. Our only hope is to put on the full armor of God."

To that, one of the women in the group said, "Okay, but how do we do that practically?" I decided to look it up and try to figure it out. This is my best shot at a start. It's long, but hang in to the end.

THE BELT OF TRUTH
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.” Ephesians 6:14

THE DESCRIPTION

Roman soldiers wore a linen undergarment next to the skin, covered by a woolen one–piece tunic that came down to the knees. It was shaped like a “T” with a hole at the top for the head. It was sewn on two sides and generally had half sleeves. At times they were dyed, but most often they were the natural color of wool. The colored tunic was usually reserved for army commanders, the wealthy or those of the government status.

Over the tunic they placed a breastplate. At the bottom of the breastplate they wore a heavy belt made of connected bronze plates and leather with a buckle very similar to what we use today. This belt had one function. It served as the foundation on which the sword, dagger and metal apron were attached.


The Point

Basically, everything depends on the belt of truth. It is foundational to the whole armor of God. If you don't get this part right, there's not much sense in the rest of it, because it will be attached to a weak foundation.

If there is a place in our life where the enemy wants to and will mess with us, it is with truth. Truth is measured/determined in our hearts and in our minds.

As William Gurnall wrote, "Truth is the sincerity of the heart. Sincerity leads us to be open to God. It keeps our motives pure, devoid of malice and wickedness towards our fellow men."

Truth in our minds convinces us of our next action.

Both our hearts and our minds are the enemies playground, the place where he works overtime to convince us to believe and feel things that are not true. His goal is to weaken our armor, to get to our weak spot.

Practical Placement

So how do we practically put on the Belt of Truth each day?

1. Pray for truth to be revealed to you every day. Ask God to help you see, feel, think what is true and recognize what is not. It's not as easy as we might imagine to immediately recognize what is true and what is false.

2. Practice truth. Simply put, tell the truth. Speak it. Get rid of exaggeration, half-truth, and protective lies. A lie is a lie. A lie is not truth.

3. The "I-Know-This-to-Be-True" exercise. I do this exercise when I am struggling with knowing what to do sometimes. When I am not sure what is true or what my next step forward should be. I say, "But I know this to be true. God created the universe. He did it in 7 days. He came to earth as a man and died for our sins." Etc. Repeat every foundational truth you know until you feel a spirit of peace come over you or until you see truth.

4. Seek truth scriptures, scriptures about the heart and the mind. Here are a few. Look for others on your own. I Corinthians 5:8, II Corinthians 1:12, I Peter 1:13-18, I Timothy 1:5, Ephesians 4:12

All that to say, that's a lot to take in. And we're only on the first piece of Armor.
(Disclaimer - I'm not a theologian or a Biblical Scholar, so if I have any of this wrong, please feel free to set me straight.)