“Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth.” Ephesians 6:14
” Mom, Ellen keeps saying my name is Nathaniel and I keep telling her that it isn’t! I AM NATHAN!” Oh the woes of us parents who shorten our children’s names and forget to tell them. Nathan only saw the partial truth. He is Nathan, but he is also Nathaniel. Are we like Nathan, knowing only a portion of who we are? Do we really know what our full name is? Or are we walking around with only half of ourselves, fighting a battle without knowing the full truth of ourselves?
Truth is part of the Full Armor of God. It is to protect our ‘loins’. Loins is the area around our hips. It is where the reproductive organs of our bodies are. Are you reproducing the truth of Jesus in your life?
“And you will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free.” John 8:32
The word ‘make’ comes from the verb “eleutheroo’. It means to set free from the chains of sin. That word is only used 12 times in 7 verses of the New Testament and every time it is in relation to setting free from the chains of sin and death.
God’s truth of the gospel brings freedom from sin that entangles our everyday lives; freedom from bitterness that grips our hearts and souls; freedom from hate that blinds us to love others; freedom from depression that says that we are worthless; freedom from sorrow that invades our very core; freedom from shame that binds our thinking; freedom from false view of ourselves as we start to see ourselves as God sees us— full of joy, full of peace, full of hope, whole, forgiven, strong in Jesus Christ.( I John 3:2)
Are you standing firm on the truth of who you are as a child of God, bought with the blood of Jesus Christ? Are you ‘Nathan’ or ‘Nathaniel’ (God’s gift)? Or are you trying to stand on half truths of who you really are?
“It is for freedom that Christ set (made) us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
Gazebo Gallery:
Challenge– Take God’s word and let that be your prayer, your truth. Then stand back and see what is reproduced in the situation.
( photo by http://www.christianphotos.net and http://www.freepik.com)
In Due Season 