PUT ON THE GARMENT
Isaiah 61: “The
spirit of the Lord is upon me…to give them…the garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness…”
As has been well
chronicled by my pastor (who has known me since before I was born), when I was
a very small child I enjoyed running around in little to no clothing. If I could escape my parents, I would strip
off my clothes and run naked as a jaybird.
It was more fun for me to play that way in our hot North Alabama
summers. As I grew a little older and
started school, I was forced to comply with the norms of society and wear
clothes all day long. When the weather turned
colder, I was forced to not only wear clothes, but also jackets and coats. My parents would tell me I had to wear my
coat because it would keep me warm and keep me from getting sick, but I never
wanted to hear that. I was
uncomfortable! I remember one particular
time in third grade, my mother bought me a nice, heavy London Fog coat (can I
get an “amen” from my fellow ‘80s kids?).
It was a good-looking gray-and-navy coat, but it was heavy and bulky,
and I couldn’t move around in it. Was it
keeping me warm? Sure. Did I care?
No. I would have rather been
wearing a t-shirt. I remember a couple
of my classmates telling me that they wished they had a coat like that to wear
to PE because it was very cold outside, and I remember telling them they could
have it if they wanted it because I didn’t like it. The sad thing is, I took off my coat to run
around on the playground, and when it was time to line up, I forgot to put it
back on. When I later remembered and
went out to get it, it was gone. Some
thankful, cold child had obviously found that coat and worn it home. I never saw it again, which secretly made me
happy but made my mother very unhappy—the coat she had paid good money for not
twenty-four hours before was gone. For
some reason, by the time I was in junior high, my aversion to coats was
overruled by my desire to look cool, and I asked for a coat every Christmas—one
denim jacket (seventh grade), one leather bomber jacket (eighth grade), and one
denim-and-leather jacket (ninth grade).
Without fail, every January, each one of those coats went missing. I would forget about them, leave them
somewhere, and never see them again.
The point of those
stories is to illustrate the fact that it is not always fun to put on extra
clothes—they can be uncomfortable, hot, and bulky. The Word of God talks about a “garment of
praise” designed to combat the spirit of heaviness. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Easy, right?
Maybe, but how many times, in the midst of a crisis or just a bad day, do
we “forget” to put on this garment—because it’s easier to complain and whine
while looking right at our situation-- instead of worshipping Him? By the same token, how many of us find it
easier to “skim” by our time with the Lord when everything is going great, but
the moment something goes wrong, we quickly reach for our garment of praise by
crying out to Him or really getting in the Word for an answer to our
problems? David said in Psalm 34, “I
will bless the Lord at ALL times. His
praise shall CONTINUALLY be in my mouth.”
Have you ever dropped the ball on that one? I have, too!
Sometimes we don’t feel like
coming together with our church families to worship God corporately. Sometimes it would be more fun to stay home
on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights.
Sometimes it is more comfortable to lie in bed and not get up and devote
time to the Lord by reading the Bible and praying. How about in the car on the way to work? Sometimes we’ll just tune into pop radio
instead of reaching for one of the fifty-million worship CDs we have lying
around in the backseat! Then we wonder
things like: “Why am I in a bad mood today?” Or, “Why am I not really
experiencing and exhibiting the joy of the Lord?” Or, “If His yoke is easy and burden light,
why do I feel so heavy?” The answer is
in the garment—or lack thereof! The Word
also calls praise a sacrifice—and a
sacrifice is something that has to be killed.
Notice that the word isn’t a “maiming of praise” or even an “injury of
praise.” Those words sound a little out
of place because “sacrifice” has, in a way, a “pretty” connotation—but we have
to remember, a sacrifice is a killing!
When Abraham went up to the place where he was going to have to
sacrifice his son Isaac, he told him what they were doing: “We’re going up this
mountain to worship.” In order to truly
live a life of worship, to truly put on the garment of praise, we have to kill
our own selfish human desires. Just like
I didn’t want to wear my coat as a child, sometimes I don’t feel like offering
to God my sacrifice of praise. It’s a
choice! It’s interesting to note that my
parents didn’t just stop supplying coats for me—even in the midst of my
ingratitude and irresponsibility. They
kept supplying them! Aren’t you glad our
Heavenly Father does the same? He knows
we’re going to mess up from time, to not always walk in an attitude of
gratitude and praise. We have the choice
to put on the garment of praise and come against everything the world throws at
us every day, and, like His mercy, the garment is new and available every
morning! Like a London Fog coat, it
offers protection. It offers
safety. It’s the presence of the
Lord. Let’s make the choice to put on
the garment!
Spencer Bell
