We just celebrated Easter, the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ, giving us Righteousness.
Sometimes life can get Messy, REAL Messy. Have you found yourself becoming Discouraged?
It is hard not to, but we don’t have to get in a Mess with our Mess.
Just read a good daily devotional by Ray Steadman that
addresses this very thing and I feel like someone could use this information to
Guard Your Heart From Discouragement. Do you feel it is impossible? Well NO!!!
Read this and see what you think...
THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTOUSNESS
“with
the breastplate of righteousness in place”.. (Ephesians 6:14b)
Christ is the ground of your righteous standing before God, your acceptance
before Him. If you are wearing that “breastplate,” you can rest secure that
your heart, your emotions, are securely guarded and adequately protected
against attack. This is perhaps the most frequent ground of attack against
Christian faith. Christians often feel they lack assurance. They feel unworthy
of God. They feel they are a failure in the Christian life and that God is
certain to reject them, that He is no longer interested in them. They are so
aware of their failures and shortcomings. Growth has been so slow. The first
joy of faith has faded, and they feel God is angry with them or that He is far
off somewhere. There is a constant sense of guilt. Their conscience is always
stabbing them, making them unhappy. They feel God blames them. This is simply a
satanic attack.
How do you answer an attack like this? You are to remember that you have
put on the breastplate of righteousness. In other words, you do not stand on
your own merits. You never did. You never had anything worthwhile in yourself
to offer to God. You gave all that up when you came to Christ. You quit trying
to be good enough to please God. You came on His merits. You came on the ground
of His imputed righteousness—that which He gives to you. You began your
Christian life like that, and there is no change now. You are still standing
before God on that basis.
Paul himself used this breastplate of righteousness when he was under
pressure to be discouraged and defeated. Here was a man who was small of
stature and unimpressive in his personal appearance. His background was
anti-Christian, and he could never get away from that completely. He had been
the most hostile, brutal persecutor of the church that it had known. He must
constantly have run across families with loved ones whom he had put to death.
He was often reminded by many people that he was not one of the original twelve
apostles, that his calling was suspect, that perhaps he really was not an
apostle at all.
What a ground for discouragement! How easy it would have been for him to
say to himself, “What's the use? Here I am working my fingers to the bone,
making tents and trying to preach the gospel to these people, and look at the
blessing God has brought them, but they don't care. They hurl recriminations
back into my face. Why try anymore?” But that is not what he does. Instead, he
says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not
without effect” (1 Corinthians 15: l0a). There he is using the breastplate of
righteousness. “I don't care,” he says, “what I have been; I don't defend what
I am. I simply say to you, by the grace of God, I am what I am. What I am is
what Christ has made me. I'm not standing on my righteousness; I'm standing on
His. I am accepted by grace, and my personal situation does not make any
difference at all.” So his heart was kept from discouragement.
Can you say this
prayer?...“Father may these words meet me
right where I am and help me right in the conflict in which I am engaged. Lift
up my heart by the consciousness that Christ is my righteousness.”......
(Ray Steadman – http://www.raystedman.org)
If you have stopped by here and have a heavy heart today please know I am praying for you and know you do have Hope and Peace ....by acknowledging that you are wearing the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS this does allow us in those Messy Times or Peaceful time to Rest in Him!
Guard your Heart and have a Peaceful mind Trusting The God of all Hope...
 |
| HE MAKES ME LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES..PS 23:2 |
I
