Key scripture- “Stand firm then… with the breastplate of righteousness in place” (Ephesians 6:14).

Satan is a deceiver, liar, and very, very tricky. If he can get you asking the wrong question, you will never come up with the right answer. If you are a Christian, the wrong question to ask is, “How do I make myself righteous?” But this is the question Satan loves for you to ask, because it has no right answer. It also distracts you from a fundamental command of God that will always protect you from the lies of Satan: “Stand firm then… with the breastplate of righteousness in place” (Ephesians 6:14).

Please note this passage doesn’t say to go out and find a breastplate of righteousness. It doesn’t say to go out and create a breastplate of righteousness. Anything you try to build yourself is based on your own performance, your own works. If you build your own armor, it’s going to be flawed and weak, it will fail, and you always have to make sure you’re doing enough to be protected, enough to be righteous, enough to be walking upright and blameless, enough to justify yourself. On top of being extremely exhausting, that is way out of sync with the way it’s supposed to be. God wants you to stand firm in the breastplate of righteousness that He has made for you. Your job is to put your trust in what He has already done.

The breastplate covers the whole chest area going down to the abdomen. It covers all the vital organs, the things that keep you alive. As a Christian, you have righteousness in Christ, which means you are morally right, blameless, and upright. You have nothing to hide from the Father, and Satan can no longer use your guilt to manipulate you. In the Upper Room, Jesus said “Satan has no hold over me” (John 14:30). The reason Satan had no hold on Him was because He was completely righteous. You shared in His crucifixion and resurrection. Everything that He won, you won too – which means Satan has no hold on or power over you either. You are covered in the Righteousness of Christ. That’s the truth and you need to know it and stand firm in this truth! The best Satan can do is to deceive you from the truth by getting you to ask the wrong question.

So how will you answer the question now, “How can I make myself righteous?”

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, I refuse my fleshly instincts to try to make myself righteous. I know that You are Yahweh Tsidkenu – The Lord our Righteousness. I know that I have the righteousness of Christ imputed to me because I have faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. My qualification to come before You, a Holy God, is not my own performance, but it is the fact that when You look at me You see me through the Righteousness of Christ, therefore, I come boldly before Your throne in prayer and cry out to You and say, “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name, Yahweh Tsidkenu, You are my Righteousness, Jesus is the reason that I can come before You in prayer today. I look to You, and only You as the answer and the source of my righteousness. By the power of Your spirit in me give me the wisdom to stand firm in the breastplate of righteousness that You have provided and made for me. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.