Armored with Him

From Ephesians 6 with some notes in italics -

Therefore you must wear the whole armor of God that you may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when you have fought to a standstill you may still stand your ground. Take your stand then… 

And here’s a point that matters deeply to me: What is the purpose of our putting on the “whole armor of God”? To take lots of ground and fight on to the next town? To make a name for ourselves because of how dashing our battleplans are? 

In the Greek, Paul says, “that you might be able to make a stand in the evil day and, having done all things, to stand. Therefore stand…” In the name of Jesus, will you be where you are; stand firm; be utterly immoveable in His present purposes? The ground He’s given you today is the exact ground you’re presently to be standing on until He tells you to move from it. 

Take your stand then with truth as your belt, righteousness your breastplate, the Gospel of peace firmly on your feet, [and] salvation as your helmet… And, honestly, I actually think Paul says this better when he simply says, in Romans 13:14, “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ…”
 
If you desire the “belt of truth,” Jesus is the “way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father except through [Him]” (John 14)
 
If you’re looking for “righteousness our breastplate,” remember that “we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible — he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned.” (Hebrews 4)
 
If you need to be shod with “the Gospel of peace firmly on our feet,” it is Jesus “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…”(2 Timothy 1)
 
And “salvation as our helmet”? “In no one else can salvation be found (Peter said of Jesus). For in all the world no other name has been given to men but this, and it is by this name that we must be saved.” (Acts 4)
 
To daily abide in Union with Jesus is to be clothed with Him and in His personal Armor from head to foot. The attributes found here are His attributes and our inheritance!