WEARING
THE RIGHT GARMENT?
“Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, lift up
your voice to God. Pray in the Spirit
and with understanding, Oh, magnify the Lord”
When I started meditating about this month’s article I
asked God to show me what “garment” he wanted me to write about.
It was interesting as He
took me down this road of discovery because I like many others like to
entertain the thought of logic as it pertains to God’s word and how it affects
us in today’s world. What He brought to
me was that in almost every aspect of the world and even in ancient times, the
garments that people wore had meaning and significance. This is evident in the style of the garments,
the symbols upon the garments, the colors, even the material they are made of.
My favorite time with the
Lord is when I am in Praise and Worship with Him. Recently, I have been having a difficult time
getting into the spirit of praise. My
mind seems to be running amuck with thoughts that have absolutely nothing to do
with what I want to be thinking
about. I don’t know about you, but
thinking about whether or not my van needs an oil change right in the middle of
trying to worship the Father is a little unsettling and distracting. So I begin to pray and wrestle with my
thoughts, trying to get my mind in line….and it takes away from my time with
Him and diminishes my sacrifice of praise.
And it is really bugging me! So
in my meditations, He showed me all of us going through our everyday
lives. We all have “uniforms”. A nurse, a doctor, a priest, a police
officer, a cook, a maid, a welder, a scuba diver, you name it there is a
garment that prepares you for the job or task that is ahead of you.
As we enter into His
presence to praise and worship Him, we must prepare ourselves physically,
mentally and spiritually to accomplish and produce fruit while in that realm of
praise. Why do we have these uniforms or
garments? I asked Him that and he showed
me why. They set us apart, they identify
us. They prepare us, they protect us,
and they enable us. How could a priest’s
garment prepare and protect and enable a scuba diver to go under water? It cannot.
When we prepare ourselves
for praise and worship, we need to put on the “garment” of praise. These
garments are ours and only ours. WE create this garment from our minds and
hearts. It can be simple or ornate. It can be a robe or sweat pants, what ever
you feel comfortable coming before the Father in. This is YOUR garment and no one or no thing
can impede or affect it. As we don this
garment, we “put on” the Attitude of
Praise! Isn’t that awesome? What this garment does for us is it sets us
apart, it identifies us to Him that we are here to worship Him, it gives up
freedom to worship as we feel led to, it protects us
from the enemy’s attacks to distract us.
It enables us to worship in spirit and in truth. It also insulates us from the secular world,
from the fussing baby, from the sniffle of your fellow churchgoer. Of course this is a garment that we
symbolically not literally wear, but it has its place and it literally empowers us, just as the full armor of
God prepares us for spiritual battle.
I encourage all of you,
in your prayer time to begin to fashion your garment of praise. As you enter into His courts, His attention
will be drawn to you and yours to Him.
He will inhabit, willingly and joyfully our sacrifice of praise. I have some sewing to do! Amen?
