Belt of Truth

In Youth Group on Sunday, we were looking at the issue of 'evil' and its impact on us as Christians. Although, as we explained, we should never spend too much time dwelling on the devil and his work (since why would we want to pay attention to such a loser?), the reality is that he is real and his dark work continues and will until the day Jesus finally crushes him under our feet, once and for all. (Romans 16:20)

I think one thing the devil tries to do to every Christian is distort our view of God. He does it to non-believers too, blinding them entirely from seeing the truth, making our loving Father seem so distant, so Holy, so demanding or downright awful that we find it difficult to come to Him and have life.

It must be no light think when God tells us to take up His armour:

"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

"Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints...." Ephesians 6:10-18

It seems to me that more than ever we need to, as Christians seeking to live in God's victory, really do our part and take up this armour of God which has been provided for us. We need to 'gird our waist' with truth. What is the truth? Well we know that Jesus is the ultimate Truth. (John 14:6)And all His promises which come to us through His word are the truth. When God speaks, we need to hold onto the promise and never let go. The devil will pull and tug, but he will be defeated. We need to look to God's way of doing warfare. We can't do it on our own, but fortunately God is so much stronger than out wildest imaginings that we can completely trust Him to bring us through.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I just feel like I'm doing little more than standing. Like I'm tottering, about to fall over. I don't feel like I have the strength to keep on fighting. When God's preparing you for something special, I tihnk that's when the devil comes in the most to try and discourage. We can even discourage ourselves quite easily, I think, without the devil's help! I think whoever said 'we are our own worst enemy' was quite right.

I think it's time to stop agreeing with the devil, or even our own negative, discouraging voice, and trust that we have what it takes! We can come out victorious. Maybe we're going through some difficult things. Maybe we feel like we've hit a brick wall. But if we just stand, and having done all, stand...

I believe God will never forsake us. Even if we feel like He isn't coming. Even when we feel like everything is about to cave in and we're going to snap. We've all been there. But God's never failed us, and He won't now!

So stand! Stand on the promises of God and His truth. Feelings are always changing, but God's truth doesn't! If you can only hold onto one thing, hold onto this: God loves you, and He'll come through for you.