Recently, while I prayed about the Ephesians 6:10-18 armor of God, He reminded me of the relationship between the Belt of Truth, and the Helmet of Salvation. Every day I pray to put on each of the six pieces of spiritual armor. I also pray in Jesus’ name to rebuke Satan from the lies he tries to feed me, and lately I have found that staying grounded in godly realism requires that I carefully consider these two pieces of the armor. Please join me as I explore how Satan can distort the truth and make us think we have reasonable thoughts when really we are thinking about lies.
Satan tries to sway me with many lies such as falsehoods about my personality, either over-elevating it, or degrading it. As a result, when I pray and tell the Lord I am putting on the belt of truth, I sometimes pray about my personality. I reject any lies that say my personality is a sin, and my being an unusual person makes me bad. But I also pray against the lie that says I can act to any extreme and claim that is part of my personality. For example, if I am with quiet, tired, or sad people, my bubbly personality can seem too loud. I need to speak more softly, and at times, say little. This does not make being a joyful person wrong. But it would be wrong to claim that I always get to be loud or laugh often, because I am a joyful person. I know what it is to suffer and be tired, and I know how much I appreciate it when others are quiet or gentle at those times too.
But I also reject the lie that I am strange for my personal quirks, such as not liking scary movies yet liking corny jokes. Those qualities are not a sin, even though many other people do not share those preferences. Personalities are simply preferences God has given to us to enable us to interact with our world. We should not use our personalities to force people to accept words or actions that are wrong for them. Nor should we be shamed for innate and harmless ways we differ from others.
Furthermore, when I put on the belt of truth, I remind myself that my sins are just that, sins. I cannot make excuses for things that clearly contradict the Scripture, even when society tries to nudge me otherwise. Satan wants to fool me, but anything contradicting Scripture, including so many things the world throws at me and tempts me with are sins. I have to be careful not give in to them.
But with the Helmet of Salvation, I realize I needed to control my mind and will, by tying in the belt of truth. Satan had been fooling me with something the Scripture warns against, called “vain imagination.” I find this concept in 2Cor.10:5(KJV), “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,” and in Romans1:21 (KJV), “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
This battle occurs in our minds. Outwardly, many “vain imaginations” do not oppose God’s truth that Jesus saves us. A person can daydream about owning a bigger house, living in a tropical paradise, and other things that may be far from that person’s true reality, yet that person can still believe Jesus is her Lord and Savior. Some daydreaming is harmless, because we might reminisce about happy times with loved ones. We may find ourselves loving those people and thanking God for those times and people. This daydreaming draws us closer to loved ones and to God.
But are these vain imaginations really harmless? They are different from the harmless and thankful daydreaming. While vain imagination does not directly oppose our faith in Christ, they still indirectly oppose the Lord, because they cause us to wish for things God has not given us. I began to see that such thinking did not please God, because it revealed a lack of contentment in my heart. Exodus 20:17 says, “Do not covet.” This is not just an Old Testament warning. In Luke 12:15, Jesus warned, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” I must add, life does not consist of living in a different place either. I had sometimes daydreamed about living in a roomer house in a warmer, more rural place with better soil for my garden, yet one day I realized I was wasting time. I was also not being content with what I have, and I have so much.
I grew up in Southern Florida where anything I planted thrived. Our winters were shorter, warmer and sunnier. While I daydreamed, I realized I was actually coveting what God no longer gives me. My current home is not bad. I do not live in an industrialized city where I never see grass. And while our winters can drop into the mid thirties at night, we do not (normally) get freezing weather here. Yes, there are many things I cannot grow in my garden due to the very poor soil. I may have amended with a ton of compost, mulch, black dirt, even multiple dozens of pounds of dead seaweed I harvested, rinsed, composted and then added to my soil. I have added organic fertilizers too. But many plants will not thrive in this soil. And we are further north than Florida, so we do have darker winters, and shade is harder on plants too, plus we live next to a two-story house that creates much shade, which plants hate.
None of this is terrible. Oh, how silly of me to fall for Satan’s lure to daydream, pretending it was a harmless “mental vacation,” when it was really me coveting. The Lord reminded me of the concept of vain imagination, and I recognized the waste of time as well as the lack of contentment. Yet the Lord says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” 1 Tim. 6:6. So even though, I was “only” daydreaming while I was washing dishes or doing other “mindless” activities, I did not need to waste my time on those thoughts. Phils.4:8 urges me to think about better things: “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
God still wants me to have fun, laugh, and goof off with my daughters and friends. He was not scolding me for my levity, but for my coveting and discontent with what he has given me. Although I never grumbled out loud, and I never daydreamed for long periods of time, God showed me it was wrong for me, because I was trying to escape from the life God has given me.
Now when Satan tries to lure me to take a “mental vacation” that is actually a form of coveting, I stop myself. I choose to rejoice in the life God has given me. There is so much I can thank him for, so I do. He has been so good to me. He has shown me to be careful as I put on the Belt of Truth and the Helmet of Salvation so I can keep my thoughts wise and thankful.
Thanks for joining us in this week’s post. I pray we have blessed you. Please share your own stories like this one, so you can encourage us the way I pray we have encouraged you.