If you really think about it there are two areas of your body you want to protect more than any other parts and NO! it is not your testicles. You can live without those but if you get shot in the head or the heart your chances for survival are much less than if you take one in the arm or leg.
The two organs are also most vital if you want to live a healthy and productive life. What we think and what we feel are entwined in almost everything we do. Jesus even said this about the heart in Matthew
“Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. “These are the things which defile the man;”
We are told that we need to put on the full armor of God. Paul uses the word “Stand Firm” which has the idea of someone standing with immoveable steadfastness. It means you need to dig in and hold the line against a foe that is coming against you. The verb has a sense of urgency, like “Do It Now!!!” It is not a suggestion but a command in the Greek.
The Breastplate of Righteousness
The breastplate was designed to protect the heart and other organs in the chest and abdomen. The thing we are to use to guard our heart is righteousness. Now for a sex addict, the tendency is to view ourselves through our addiction. We are a sex addict and so we are filthy and abominable to God. He must hate our sin and that begins to translate into our thinking to He must hate us. However, this ignores the truth that the Scriptures teach us.
Putting on the breastplate of righteousness is reminding ourselves what the Bible says is true of you. Our self-righteousness is like filthy rags Isaiah says in Isiah 64:6. However, for the believer and follower of Christ God has given to us the righteousness of Christ. Here are the two things you need to know about God and righteousness.
First – God has Imputed to us the Righteousness of Christ. Impute means to credit it to someone’s account. God has given to us the righteousness of Christ. He has taken the list of all of sins, past, present, and future and declared all our sins forgiven and all our debts paid. It’s like if I showed up at your front door and handed you the deed to the house and the statement from the mortgage company and stamped on it is Paid in Full.
When we accept Christ to be our Savior God the Father gives to us the righteousness of Christ. He takes our sins and placed them on Jesus on the cross and takes Jesus’s righteousness and gives it to you.
Second – God Imparts to us the Righteousness of Christ. This is the work of the Holy Spirit helping you to live a righteous life. The Spirit is in us to help us choose to make righteous decisions by the power of the Spirit instead of us walking in the flesh and continuing to sin.
So here is how I pray on the breastplate of righteousness.
“Abba Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit. I want to put on the full armor of God today so that I might stand strong in the strength of your might through the power of the Spirit. I gird my loins with the truth so help me to know the truth and speak the truth. I want to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Thank you for giving to me the righteousness of Christ and help me today to make righteousness decisions in what I think, see, do, and say.”