Righteous Through Faith

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Ephesians 6: 14 – 15 

As Christians, one of the strongest attacks on our faith can come from our own hearts – as we deal with our own unworthiness. During certain times for whatever reasons, we may begin to feel as if we don’t deserve His blessings or grace upon us. And especially during the difficult times when He hasn’t answered our prayers and when we don’t feel His presence, we may even begin to wonder if  He has abandoned us. We may feel as if He is angry with us or is even punishing us for our lack of obedience and faithfulness to Him, and we begin to live with a sense of guilt, with feelings of unworthiness and even hopelessness. For a short time, we may have lost the assurance of His love and presence with us.

Then hopefully, our hearts return to Him as we remember God’s truths and His promises to us, for one thing we can count on is that He will never leave us nor forsake us. His promises to us are for all eternity.

One example of His promise to His people was when God made a covenant with Abraham to make him the father of a great nation through his offspring. (Even though he was 75 at the time and didn’t have a son, Isaac, until 25 years later – at the age of 99). Abraham began to doubt and question God, but when God reassured him once again, “Abraham believed the Lord and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

Abraham believed God and trusted Him, and because he did, God blessed him. Abraham was not perfect. He didn’t earn favor with God by being a good man, wise, compassionate, or even godly. He earned righteousness by believing God and by having faith in Him.

This is our story too. We can’t earn God’s favor or the gift of eternal life through moral thinking, the works we do, or through religious exercises such as attending church and reading the Bible, or by even serving God. We can only be saved and declared righteous through our FAITH and BELIEF in Him.

Christ is the foundation of our righteous standing before God – our acceptance before Him. If we are wearing “the breastplate of righteousness“, we can rest secure that our hearts and all that we are, will be secure in Him. We don’t have to stand on our own merits. We never could. We never can. We come to Him through the grace of Christ. We can’t stand on our own righteousness, but we can stand on His. If we always look to Him and stand firm in following His truths and trust Him in faith, we can have the peace and assurance of knowing we belong to Him and His loving presence will always be with us.

Prayer

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for loving us and for sending your Son to save us. Help us to grow in faith and to believe in your promises to us that are found in your Word. Thank you for your unconditional love and faithfulness. Amen