A Garment of Praise

“…the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” Isaiah 61: 3b

Do you ever feel like there is a spirit of heaviness on you?  Sometimes, it feels as though it’s on your physical body: like your legs and arms feel like cement, and you feel tired and weary.  Other times, you sense it in your spirit or your emotions: you feel discouraged, down, depressed, unmotivated and struggle to do things you usually do.  Something in you feels off, heavy, weary, faint and weak.

I have been carrying a spirit of heaviness, and I wonder if you have too.  An old song came to my mind as I practiced solitude and reflected on what I had been carrying for the past few days.

“Put on a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness

Lift up your voice to God

Sing in the spirit and with understanding

Oh Magnify the Lord”

This song comes from Isaiah 61, which is one of my favourite scriptures; a prophecy of the coming Saviour, JESUS, that will save us from the burdens of our sin and the brokenness of the world.  Verse 3 says: He will give you a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness.  There is always an exchange with Jesus, an exchange of something broken, weary or weak for something good.

A spirit of heaviness feels like a garment; it feels like a weighted blanket pressing in, holding you back from being able to do the things you want to do.  It feels like you are going through the motions of life with so much more effort and energy than it should take.  Jesus promises an exchange – a removal of the heavy grave clothes, a trade of this spirit of heaviness for a new cloak – a garment of praise that is light and easy.

A spirit of heaviness can come on us for many reasons; we could be carrying a burden that is not ours to bear, we could be struggling through an emotional or physical illness that is painful or wearisome, we could be pushing through some spiritual darkness that is trying to invade, or we could be carrying a weight of sin that is literally enslaving us like we are dragging around a ball and chain.

This verse does not address the source of our heaviness, and often, when Jesus ministered to people, it didn’t matter what the source was; the result was always the same: an exchange of this spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise resulting in FREEDOM.  Each person that Jesus touched came to him, cried out to him, praised him in faith believing, and they received an exchange.

Isaiah 61 says that the Spirit of the sovereign Lord, who is Jesus, will give us a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness.  So today, if you are carrying a spirit of heaviness, no matter the cause: Lay it down.  Even if you don’t know where it is coming from, Lay it down today and exchange it for a new, lighter garment of praise.

The weather during summer in Ottawa is quite hot.  The hotter and more humid it gets, the heavier the air feels.  You cannot wear heavy clothing like a winter jacket and tons of layers.  You must remove all the heavy layers and put on a very light garment so you can stand in the thick, heavy heat of the day.

Today, your circumstances may not go away, but you can still praise.  Praise is like putting on a light, flowing garment that enables you to stand no matter what heat you are under.  Take off the heavy garments and put on praise today.  Praise before your breakthrough because that kind of faith makes room for a miracle.

What if you came to Jesus today in faith and exchanged your spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise?  Often, we try to put on the garment of praise right over the top of the spirit of heaviness, and we wonder why it doesn’t work.  We want to hold onto the burdens because it gives us a sense of control or identity.  The garment of praise, thanksgiving, gratitude, and glory is the exchange for the spirit of heaviness, and it is light and an easy yoke.

Lord, we pray for an exchange of your garment of praise that is light and easy for our spirit of heaviness.  Thank you for loving us so much; we receive this good news today: the good news that Jesus is LORD, and You have come to set us free from a spirit of heaviness today!