Daily Devotional – August 20

day already, and afternoon of Thursday, so how's your day going?

Is it getting a lot accomplished? Have you had some time in the Word today, filling your mind with the truth, getting the truth fixed in your mind, in your heart?

I hope so, because we've been talking the last couple days about our personal responsibility as followers of Jesus to put on the armor of God, and that first piece of armor that Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 6 that we need to put on is that belt of truth.

We need to fasten on that belt of truth before we go anywhere else, before we get any of the other armor, fasten on the belt of truth.

We're in a spiritual warfare. It's a spiritual warfare. It's not a physical one.

If it were a physical one, we wouldn't be beginning with this belt of truth, but it's a spiritual warfare.

That means it's going to have something to do with ideas, and philosophies, and ways of thinking, and worldviews, and so forth, and the wicked one is very adept at coming at us with values, and ideas, and ideals, and philosophies that undermine the truth of God's word.

And so we begin there, and yesterday we explored three reasons why

Paul begins with this putting on the belt of truth. I suggested first of all that this is

Satan's primary tactic. It's his preeminent scheme, if you will.

It's the one he used successfully with Eve in the garden. It's the tactic he employed with Jesus in the wilderness, and it's a tactic he has used with Christians professing, you know, false

Christians, real Christians for centuries, and done so very effectively, getting them to listen to his lies that then take them away from the truth of God's word.

So it's the devil's primary scheme. The second thing I suggested, the reason

I suggested that Paul says we need to begin with this belt of truth is that when you dismiss the truth, you open yourself up to failure, and to heartache, and woe.

And we looked at David, and how he lost sight of the truth.

It wasn't the inner thing guiding him, and he had to come back in Psalm 51 and remind himself as he prayed to the

Lord that the Lord desires truth in the inward parts, because that will then direct you, and lead you away from, and keep you from falling into that trap of heartache and woe.

And then the third reason I suggested that Paul begins there is that when you begin with the truth, you have a powerful defensive weapon.

It was the way Jesus handled Satan's temptations in the wilderness. Every time

Satan came at him with something, Jesus responded with the truth. So what are we talking about here with the truth?

And I would suggest that Paul is referring to God's truth in general, that which he has revealed to man about himself.

He's revealed truth through general revelation in creation, truth that is explained and expanded upon in special revelation, the word of God itself.

And I think when Paul's talking about being prepared with the belt of truth, having fastened on that belt of truth, he's talking about the whole scope of God's truth.

So begin with the truth, and truths such as the existence of God, that God is, that he does indeed exist, that there is a real personal

God who has created all things. There is not just a couple of antithetical forces in the universe that just so happen to come into existence on its own by way of evolution or whatever.

No, there is a creator God who is a personal God. So remind yourself of that.

Begin with the truth of his existence, of his person, his character, what he's like, what has he done, what has

God done. All of this he has revealed in his word and in creation itself.

And then begin with the truth about the nature of man and his true condition.

What is man really like? Is man born into this world a blank slate, just waiting to be written upon?

Or is man born a sinner, which explains then why he sins?

You don't have to teach a baby to sin, a young child to sin and to defy rules and to turn away from...

You don't have to teach a child that. It's a natural thing. Why is that? Because of what man is like, because of man's true condition.

Be armed with the truth of man's vulnerabilities, of his weaknesses, of man's root problem, which is sin and selfishness, and consequently man's essential need.

What does man need more than anything else, even more than his necessary food?

What does he need? He needs to have that root problem dealt with, that problem of sin.

In other words, man needs to be saved, to be rescued from sin, from its penalty, from its power, and from its presence.

Well then, that leads you to be armed with the truth of how that takes place.

How is man's need met? It takes you to the truth of Christ and our need for him, that he is the

God -man, God who became flesh. And who is he?

What is he like? What has he done? What was his work while he was on this earth?

What was accomplished when he died on that cross, when he rose again from the dead?

What is his work now that he has ascended into heaven? Be armed with the truth of Christ, and then begin with the truth about your enemy and his tactics.

Don't allow your head to be buried in the sand and to go day after day thinking that it doesn't matter what you watch on TV, it doesn't matter what you take into your mind, it doesn't matter the things you say, it doesn't matter who your friends are, all those things, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter whether or not you pursue your dreams and your desires and your goals and so on and so forth.

Evaluate all of those things in the light of the truth. Who is your enemy?

What is he like? What are his tactics, you see? In other words, what

I think Paul is talking about here is the entire scope of divine revelation about reality.

Because here's the thing, if you don't begin there, you subject yourself to the problem of Romans 1, the problem of man that is seen in Romans 1.

Paul talks about this when he says that the wrath of God in Romans 1, 18 and following, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Why? Why is man so full of ungodliness and unrighteousness and therefore inviting the wrath of God?

Because, he says, by their unrighteousness they suppress the truth.

They suppress the reality of what is as God has revealed it to us.

He goes on to say, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

He refers to how God in creation has revealed himself in his character and yet what do we do?

What does do? He suppresses that. What is the dominant thinking in our world today?

That man is a product of chance and evolution, leaving

God completely out of the picture. The truth is suppressed. And he goes on,

Paul does in Romans 1, 21, he says, for although they knew God and about him, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Why begin with a belt of truth?

Because the belt of truth protects you from becoming futile in your thinking and having a darkened, foolish heart becoming a fool.

And the net result of that is that God gave them up, verse 24 tells us, in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever.

Amen? And then he says this in verse 28, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge

God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Well, listen, Christian, follower of Christ, if you're a believer in Christ, you need to fill your mind with the truth.

Don't suppress it. Don't allow your foolish heart to be darkened by the lies of the wicked one.

No. Arm yourself with the truth, with what

God has revealed about what really is, about reality.

Have a Christian worldview. Interpret the news you watch from the standpoint of biblical revelation, of God's revelation, of God's truth.

Don't allow yourself to mindlessly watch television programs and movies and so on and so forth.

Evaluate those in the light of reality of what really is. You think about your dreams, your goals, your aspirations, what you think will give you pleasure and delight and happiness.

You better evaluate all of that in the light of reality of God's revelation of the truth.

See, put on, fasten on the belt of truth.

It will save you from a world of woe, a world of heartache. All right, well,

I trust this will be an encouragement to you to be filled with and pursue the knowledge of the truth, having that belt firmly fastened around your waist.

All right, let's pray and ask God to fill us with that truth. Help us, O Lord, to see reality as it is through your eyes, as you have revealed it to be.

Keep us, O Lord, from being blinded by the wicked one and his devices, his lies.

But Father, I pray again, help us to take responsibility and not to just sit back and expect you to constantly keep us from his lies.

Help us to know the truth that we can discern his lies. So this we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your Thursday and trust that your week will end well as you go into your weekend and your last day of the work week on Friday.