Put on the Garment of Praise
Good morning my God Faith, Grace, and dachshund family, I pray the everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday. This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it. Yesterday was a bit rough for me, for some reason my mind kept going back to the day I had let Faith go. Talking about her is just as painful as it was on July 28, 2022. I really don’t know why she was so present in my thoughts yesterday, but she was. So as I meditated God said to put on some music and praise me.
He dropped these scriptures in my heart. Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
Our emotions are real, our wants, needs, and desires are real, and God used these things that sometime seem bad , and a lot of the times they are. Losing a fur baby, child , parent, friend can be very hard to deal with emotionally but God had give us tools to combat these things when they pop and they will. It’s not a matter if things will go sideways, it’s when. Peter informs us to think it not strange when we face trials. 1 Peter 4:12-13 (NIV) 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
For the reason that are sometimes beyond our control we find ourselves in a emotional or physical battle that we didn’t see coming, and we are brought to a place of mourning, sadness, frustration, and thoughts that don’t lineup with the word of God. During my time of meditation I put a CD on and this song started playing “ No Weapon Formed Against you Shall Prosper” immediately Isiah 54:16-17 came to mind. Isaiah 54:16-17 (NIV) 16 “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc;
17 no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.
I’m in line waiting to pick my granddaughter up from school, trying to hold the tears back, when the song starts playing and my heart is breaking, because God always has a word for us if we just listen, be quite and be still. God wants us to know that when life happens, we should offer up praise. You can not praise God and think about what your situation is at the same time. When the song came of and I started singing in my truck with just me and God, the heaviness began to lift. It’s easy to praise God when things are going well, but we have to praise Him when things are so good.
Paul and Silas praised and worshipped God from a prison cell. Acts 16:24-26 (NIV)
24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.
In conclusion when we find ourselves with a heavy spirit, we should put on the garment of praise. When we praise God and get our minds off our current situation God can start working on our problems. Praise releases you for the situation and it releases Holy Spirit to rectify your problem, state of mind or whatever the issue is. Paul and Silas were in the lowest part of the prison and sometimes we feel we can’t go any lower, but if we open our mouth and begin to praise God and give Him the worship, He deserves your circumstances will change. Psalm 37:7 (NIV) 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
