Protect Your Heart
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23, NIV
It seems that most law enforcement personnel today wear bulletproof vests while on duty. While those vests are usually made of tough, synthetic material, in many combat situations soldiers have vests with actual metal or ceramic plates covering their chests. Why the emphasis on protecting the chest from fatal gunfire? Because a wound to the chest may result in a wound to the heart. And a wound to the heart is rarely survived.
In Paul’s description of the Christian’s spiritual armor, he wrote that righteousness is the believer’s breastplate—that which protects the heart (Ephesians 6:14). The leather breastplate of the Roman soldier in Paul’s day has been replaced by today’s bulletproof vests—but the purpose is the same. Righteousness implies holiness or sinlessness. But how are we, as sinners, able to protect our heart from Satan’s accusations of sinfulness? By relying not on our righteousness but on the righteousness of Christ who never sinned: “For [God] made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Protect your heart by depending on Christ’s righteousness rather than your own. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Edward Mote
Turning Point Ministries
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23, NIV
It seems that most law enforcement personnel today wear bulletproof vests while on duty. While those vests are usually made of tough, synthetic material, in many combat situations soldiers have vests with actual metal or ceramic plates covering their chests. Why the emphasis on protecting the chest from fatal gunfire? Because a wound to the chest may result in a wound to the heart. And a wound to the heart is rarely survived.
In Paul’s description of the Christian’s spiritual armor, he wrote that righteousness is the believer’s breastplate—that which protects the heart (Ephesians 6:14). The leather breastplate of the Roman soldier in Paul’s day has been replaced by today’s bulletproof vests—but the purpose is the same. Righteousness implies holiness or sinlessness. But how are we, as sinners, able to protect our heart from Satan’s accusations of sinfulness? By relying not on our righteousness but on the righteousness of Christ who never sinned: “For [God] made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Protect your heart by depending on Christ’s righteousness rather than your own. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Edward Mote
Turning Point Ministries
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