Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,  Eph. 6:14a

Stand therefore. Wherefore? Seeing as we are at war with " principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places", seeing we have put on the whole armour – Christ and we are soldiers of the King. Stand is a position of resolution. We have taken this position and we will not give way. We will not retreat, we will not surrender what we have taken hold of.

But how do we stand? James tells us to, resist the devil and he will flee from you. What type of attack does the devil bring against us? A spiritual onslaught meant to at first diminish your faith and eventually to destroy and annihilate it. How do we fight him? The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not man made, but forged in the fire of a pure and holy Gospel and tempered in the blood of our Lord. They are spiritual to the pulling down of strongholds. Where are the strongholds? In the mind.

A stronghold is a place where the demons of darkness have made a place for themselves in your mind and thinking. They send their filthy lies over the walls into your heart and mind to weaken your defenses and make a way in for establishing a greater portion of your mind and heart. Stand therefore.

This is the imperative – stand. Don’t give way, don’t falter, don’t hesitate, stay watchful and alert that you might not be moved or distracted. How do we do this? With our armour. Paul begins to list those weapons we have in order to protect and defend and even advance against our enemies.

First in the wardrobe is the belt of truth. Truth is ultimate weapon against the lie. A lie is totally disarmed and made powerless when confronted by truth. Notice that the placement of this Truth is a belt around the waist.

Our most vulnerable part of our body is our loins and groin area. Here is where we are soft and weak. The loin area is the home of the glands and secretions of fluids that give physical substance to our emotions. Here is where our feelings make a sensual presence to us. When our mind takes hold of a thought that appears to bring with it reason for fear our glands go into action and start stirring the loins making us feel upset in our stomachs. We get these "gut feelings" that warn us.

I believe that these gut feelings are programmed into us from early years by none other than our Adversary. He has been successful at bringing these feelings at just the right time so that we have now begun to trust them instead of the Word of God. We give them place in our will, helping form our choices. Remember God says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything make your requests known. God wants us to trust Him and His power and love for us, not our feelings.

We need Truth to protect us in this area. This belt is also a critical piece of our wardrobe in that it brings so much more of our outfit together and holds it all in place. You will see as we continue to put on our armour just how important our mind and heart are. Guard them with truth. Put on your belt.