Ephesians 6:14b — Check your heart, bro

READ THIS: Ephesians 6:14b

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

*REMINDER* We are going to be going over the armor of God for the next few days... piece by piece! We will be showing all the verses for the section each day, but we really want you to focus on the part in bold each day!

We learned yesterday about how we can seek out the truth and call out lies. Today, we have got a pretty short half-sentence to break down, but there's a lot to unpack! The breastplate covers a soldier's heart... kind of an important part of the body! We are told here to cover and protect our hearts with righteousness, which we like to define as "right-ness" (doing the right thing, having the right intentions, etc). But why? Why should we have our hearts protected with righteousness over anything else?

Jesus tells us why in Matthew 12. While speaking to a group of people called the Pharisees, he says this: 33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." Did you catch that last part? Our mouths speak what our hearts are full of! If our hearts are in the right place, then our words and our actions will follow!

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. What is your heart full of?

2. What are things in your life that fill up your heart, and how can someone change what fills up their heart?
 
TRY THIS:
 
For the next 24 hours, try to surround yourself with things that only point you to Jesus. Try to change the music you listen to, the things you watch on TV, and conversations you have to be centered on Jesus!

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 2, 2023 at 5:26 AM

    The only way we can change our hearts is by asking the Holy Spirit/God/Jesus to reign in our hearts, to do away with thoughts that do not have them at the center. There’s an old poem my 101 year old Great Aunt taught me years ago that says, “Our heart’s a garden where thought flowers grow, each thought that we think is a seed that we sow. Each kind loving thought bears a kind loving deed, and thoughts that are selfish are just like a weed. So let us plant seed thoughts so thick in a row that there’ll be no room for a weed thought to grow!”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousJune 2, 2023 at 9:42 AM

      That’s absolute BARS!!! Thanks for sharing

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians 2:1-5 — Marathon Training

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:1-5 1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Yesterday, we learned about how Paul went to Jerusalem and shared the incredible things Jesus did, but today, we are hearing about Paul's second time visiting Jerusalem... 14 years later. Paul talks about a bunch of things that happened ...
Read more

Luke 8:19-21 — Jesus's Fam!

R EAD THIS:  Luke 8:19-21 19 Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21 He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Ummmm, hold up, is Jesus dissing on His family here? I mean, I know He is God's Son and all, but at first glance, this passage makes it seem like He is kind of hating on His family! However, if we really look into this passage, it's actually a lot more about us than it is about the family of Jesus.  In case you forgot, the last few passages have features Jesus telling and explaining different parables to a large crowd as well as His disciples. Clearly, the crowd has gotten so large that Mary and Jesus's brothers (yes... Jesus had brothers!) couldn't even reach Him. When someone told Jesus "hey dude, your fam is here an...
Read more

WELCOME BACK! Hebrews Introduction

WELCOME BACK TO DEEPLY ROOTED!!! Greetings fellow Bible readers and Jesus journey-ers! We're stoked to get back in the swing of things with y'all. For any new readers, this section would usually be where our handful of Bible verses will be. The section below would break down what in the world the verses mean. Then, there are some debrief questions for you to dive deeper and an application point. A new addition this year is the Song of the Week! We'll share a song that ties into the theme of the next few verses...if you gaze ahead and have song suggestions, comment below or text! HEBREWS INTRODUCTION: As with any book of the Bible, different Biblical scholars say different things about this letter, but we'll tell you the most probable take. So here it is: Hebrews is a letter written to a group of Jews who were being persecuted for deciding to follow Jesus. It is a letter to encourage them and to show that Jesus truly is the best person to follow despite how hard it was g...
Read more