Put on your Christmas outfit!
Today I am writing you with great exultation because we all have been given a Christmas outfit that is more dazzling than anything you have ever found under the tree! Isaiah 61 gives us the many reasons Christ came to earth and was born in a manger with the expressed intent to die for our sins and to give us life forevermore in His presence. But He added some beautiful things with that gift, gifts that will adorn us to walk through our daily lives robed in a way that shines for Him and draws the unsaved to the Light of the World. Isaiah 61:3 says He came:
3 to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
What are you mourning this Christmas season? A prodigal in your life? A relationship you pray could be better? Mistreatment or injustice? Addiction? Feelings of regret? Whatever it may be, He wants to pull you out of the grayness of depression and mourning, adorn your sweet head with a beautiful headdress, treat you like royalty, and anoint you with oil so you glisten and feel better. He wants to rub off the ashes that stand for death and fill you with life. Pray to be anointed with the oil of gladness today.
The day we are saved, we receive the garment of salvation. In other words, we are clothed in a protection that covers our entire bodies, and satan can never do anything to us that won’t ultimately be a blessing in our lives. We may have hard times, but every anecdote in our lives has a happy ending. Every one. No exceptions.
But He also gave us three other garments. Verse 3 says we were given the garment of praise to replace our faint spirit. Are you intentionally putting this garment on every day? Christmas is a great time to start doing that. Singing along with your church praise team, belting out a true Christmas song as you sing along with your car radio, and just sharing verbal praises are some of the ways you can wear the garment of praise in a way that all who meet you can see the Light in you.
He also gave us the robe of righteousness (verse 10.) Every day of our lives we have the robe of righteousness covering us. Some us struggle to walk around in the world knowing we are righteous because we know how unrighteous some of our words, thoughts, or actions have been. But this righteousness is not your own. It is the righteousness of Jesus that covers you from head to toe and He wants you to wear it with great awareness that He has given you this robe freely. When my earthly father would give a gift, we would know it was very special. He bought nice things. When you saw a box from him under the tree, you knew it was going to be exquisite and costly. He enjoyed giving us the gift, but he wanted to see us wear it. If we said we were saving it for some special occasion, he would urge us to wear our nice clothes now. Our Heavenly Father wants us to wear the robe of righteousness with great confidence and joy, because he paid an extravagant price for it. You have never had a garment this expensive, and it is for daily wear.
Verses 3 and 10 also mention the accessories—the beautiful headdress and the jewels we adorn ourselves with like a bride. These are not accessories for wilting violets. These are statement pieces. When we adorn ourselves spiritually for Christmas, we want to world to see us and how the Lord has clothed us with His love and mercy and forgiveness. And as we walk through this Christmas season, he wants us to exult over His gifts as Isaiah did. Read verse 10 and catch the spirit He wants us to walk in in this season of our Lord’s birth:
10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Now go put on your Christmas outfit!