Part of your armor against the ploys of the enemy is a bulletproof vest for your heart. If Satan can twist your heart, if he can harden your heart, if he can damage your heart, then he renders you ineffective. Nobody looks at a cynical, irritable, negative, grouchy Christian and says, ‘wow, I gotta have what she has.’ Yip – ineffective! Zero impact for Jesus. Saved but not set apart for good works.

For these reasons you are given the breastplate of righteousness, the bulletproof vest for your heart.

If you feel righteous, there’s a problem. You’re not. There’s nothing you could ever do to make yourself clean enough, good enough, or holy enough to be considered righteous in our perfect God’s sight. And this is exactly why Jesus was required. Only he could make you righteous. His righteousness is imparted to you. His name is stamped on your account of debts and you’re forever marked as “GOOD ENOUGH”. Not because of what you’ve done, but because of what Jesus did for you.

Righteous – this means to be free from guilt or sin. Not without guilt or sin, but free from it. No longer bound by it. No longer in debt to it. No longer victim to it, but FREE from it. And the righteousness of Jesus has now empowered you to live better.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:14, “Put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Other translations call it the “body armor of God’s righteousness” or “God’s approval as your breastplate.” TPT says, “Put on holiness as the protective armor that covers your heart.” Here’s what we know – without this right standing, without God’s approval, our most vital organs are completely vulnerable. The chest shot is the easiest shot and without God’s covering, we will go down in the battle against our enemy.

God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. No amount of good works, no amount of changed habits, no amount of perfectly met goals, nothing we could possibly do would make us righteous. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, Romans 3:23. That includes you on your worst days and you on your best days. So here’s what God did – he stepped in and bridged the gap where we fell short of his glory. He bridged that gap with a cross. A literal cross where Jesus hung – and that cross allows us to cross over from forever not good enough no matter what we do, to forever good enough because of what was done for us.

When you wear that as your bulletproof vest, the flaming arrows of the enemy just bounce right off. Oh, he’ll still shoot them out you, but ping ping ping, they just bounce. Your heart is untouched when you fully know the stamp of Christ’s full approval on you.

But … there’s one little problem. The devil and his demons know full well how unworthy of this bulletproof vest of righteousness you feel when you aren’t living right. It’s hard to put on our divinely given righteousness when deep down we know darn good and well we’re not living right.

When we engage in sin, we open the door for the devil to have influence in our lives. You don’t even have to open the door fully to him, but a little crack will do. A little dabble in that sin. A borderline gray area that no one knows about. Even that crack in the door will give him an opportunity. Ephesians 4:27 says, “give NO opportunity to the devil.”

About 2 years ago, I began praying that God would reveal to me any part of my life that was not pleasing to him. Well that was dangerous and I didn’t even know it. Suddenly the Holy Spirit started revealing all my little cracked doors to the enemy. But these were really fun things. Things I enjoyed. Things that made me happy. Things I wrestled to understand how they could be wrong.

After wrestling and reasoning for months, I finally began to release these things and make changes. And let me tell you what happened – it’s like the lid was taken off! I was free like never before. Blessings upon blessings. Now I wonder why I waited so long to trust God with those doors that needed to be closed. The devil had access to my heart through the little cracks I had left open, doing things God had asked me not to do. When I finally partnered with God and slammed those doors, my heart was once again fully protected with the righteousness Jesus offers.

Here’s the truth – the devil can’t take your righteousness from you, but he sure will offer you temptations to enter into a life that is so far from God’s way of living that you just dismiss yourself. When you know you’re living in wrong ways, it’s almost impossible to keep putting on that breastplate of righteousness. What God has given you as protection becomes a heavy reminder of your unworthiness today because of what you did yesterday. So, guess what … guilt and shame eventually make you leave the breastplate in the corner. It’s too painful to put on righteousness when you know you’re not living right.

And boom – you’re vulnerable. Now with your hidden guilt and quiet shame, your heart is left unprotected. The offered righteousness of Jesus lays on the floor as the enemy’s fiery darts come flying.

No, your righteousness cannot be taken from you. What Jesus did is forever done. But what can happen here is you can feel so terrible about your life that you no longer put on that righteousness.

PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. THIS IS PART OF GOD’S DIVINE ARMOR FOR YOU IN THE UNSEEN SPIRITUAL BATTLE.

GOD. LOVES. YOU. With full awareness of every single thing you would ever do wrong, every bad choice you would ever make, every failure, every wandering step, he knowingly and willing CHOSE to give his son Jesus for you. He knew it was the only way you could be made right, and he deemed you worthy of that sacrifice.

SATAN. HATES. YOU. With full awareness of God’s covering of undeserved righteousness over you, Satan continually tries to remove that covering.

Let me tell you something, Satan has no power to take the breastplate of righteousness from you but he certainly can convince you into living a life that makes that breastplate feel entirely too heavy to wear. Tricky little sucker will deceive you into picking up guilt and shame instead of righteousness, and wear that over your heart.

My human mind cannot understand why God would do this for me. I’m messed up, and wow, I have a really special way of getting things wrong sometimes. But I choose to believe His word concerning me – I choose to believe that I am made righteous through Jesus. That his cross allows me to cross over to the righteousness I fall short of. Over and over again, God helps me when I cannot help myself.

On the days when I get it right, I must remember that breastplate of righteousness has absolutely nothing to do with my good works. It was given to me to wear. It protects me from pride.

On the days when I get it wrong, I must remember the breastplate of righteousness is still mine. It was given to me to wear. It protects me from guilt and shame.

For his girls wearing this breastplate of righteousness, we are called to then live RIGHT. Clean up our lives. We’re not given permission to continue living in the ways his Spirit tells us are wrong.

That’s the beauty of this walk with Jesus – we learn more and more how to live right. And as he lovingly invites us into better living, it’s for our greatest benefit to trust him and leave behind our old ways. Continuing in our old ways makes it harder to put on the armor over our hearts, and without that armor, our hearts are left vulnerable.

Jesus, I’m not a good guard of my own heart – I need your righteousness to guard this heart of mine.

So today, for the one who feels so totally unrighteousness because of your past or present choices, please know the breastplate of Jesus’ righteousness is still here for your heart. Bring him your guilt, bring him your shame, bring him your regrets and receive his holy exchange. You, the real you, all of you, forever made righteous.

That’s everything Satan doesn’t want you to know. But when you know, your heart is protected!

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