Inward Garments

Isaiah 61:3

…The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…

Inward Garments

               You know our moods; our dispositions, our attitudes, our outlook on life and our demeanor are all clothing and garments of our soul and spirit.  The inward man has a wardrobe just like the outward man.  So what kind of garments are we wearing on the inside of us today? 

               When life is going well and things are prosperous and easy, it is not so hard to have a good disposition.  What about those days, weeks or even years when we have endured heartache, disappointments, afflictions, hurts and the heaviness of life weighs down upon us, oppressing and depressing us?  It is hard to have joy in the midst of sorrow and it is hard to rejoice in pain, but we will identify and outwardly take upon us the fashion of our inner clothing. 

               God has given us the ability in these times to be able to change our inner garments.  It starts with the faith of who He is.  It takes our eyes off the natural circumstances, the very seemingly real feelings of despair that we have, and it looks upon the promises of our faithful God.  Faith reaches out and grabs hold of God’s Word and life and then the exercise of that faith begins to change the fabric of our mournful state by declaring what God has said.  It looks at those things that are not and speaks to them as though they are.  Faith remembers 1Corinthians 1:28 that says, “And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, [yea], and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.”  Faith looks and remembers what God says in Isaiah 46:8-11, “ Remember this, and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors. 9 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ 11Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it”. 

Faith looks upon an ever-living and ever-faithful God and it begins to open its mouth in praise.  It declares as Paul does in 2 Corinthians 4:7-18, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you. 13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  Faith fixes it’s eyes upon what God has said and promised and not upon the hard place that it is in.  Praise begins to declare the majesty and the promises of the Almighty and of His Son, Jesus Christ.  It looks up and sees the heavens open and joins chorus with the angelic host that worship before the throne.  Praise puts upon us a royal and priestly garment that is the proper apparel for approaching the throne of God. 

Praise and worship changes our demeanor and our spiritual garments.  It gives us beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning that the name of the Lord might be glorified.  The world has to wonder at people that can demonstrate such joy in such a pitiful earthly state.  It is because they have looked upon their Redeemer who lives. They see the heavens opened and the garment of praise has brought them before the King of Kings and into the joy of His presence.

Blessings,

#kent