"Putting Our Worship On"

Though the fig tree fail to blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock be cut off from the herd in the stalls--Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills. Habakkuk 3:17-19

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Today's message is inspired by a line in a song that I heard a few days ago. I didn't know who the artist was that was singing it at the time and had never heard the song before but as it played there was a line that jumped out at me and every time it repeated throughout the song it seamed to embed itself into my spirit more and more. I did some digging (a search on google) and found the song again so that I could give you the info and that way you could listen to it if you wished. It is called "It's A Beautiful Day" by Jamie Grace

The line in the song that has been poking at me is this, "I'm about to get my worship on." Every time I think it, it makes me smile and as I said it sorta embedded itself within so I have thought of it often in the last few days. At first It made me think about being in that place of praise and worship and I would smile because I love that place in worship were the world fades and it is all about Him. You know the moment in worship when you forget all about your needs wants, weakness, etc. They fade and It is suddenly only about expressing your love for Him! That moment when with everything you have its about proclaiming Him to be worthy! I love that place of His presence, so at first when I would think, "I'm about to get my worship on." I would smile because it make me look to that place. As He continued to poke me with those words I began to realized that it is about so much more.

The key to the so much more is wrapped up in the word, 'on.' I'm about to put my worship ON." I live in New Hampshire and when it is -20 below I put my winter coat on before I go out to face the day! You'll notice I said, "My winter coat, not my spring jacket or a sweater, but a winter coat because it is better equipped to help with the winter elements! In Isaiah 61:1-3 it says that  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor,..........to give them beauty for ashes. The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

Jesus was anointed to do a whole list of things here in this passage in Isaiah and most often the focus is on the preaching and setting captives free which is awesome and amazing and incredibly wonderful but the last thing on this list of things He was anointed to do was to give us a garment of praise to deal with any spirit of heaviness that would try to take our eyes off from how awesome, and amazing and incredibly wonderful He is! He bought us a garment of praise and it is time that we put it on! It was purchased for us special because He knows where we live and that we need it to overcome the elements! He knows that there is heaviness out there and He purchased a garment that we can wear to keep us warm and to equip us to deal with the effects of heaviness.

In Luke 17:11-19 is a tale about ten lepers. Jesus sends them all on their way healed and one of the ten ...when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks." This man put on his garment of praise. When did it happen and how do we put our garment on? It happened for this man when he looked down and realize that his flesh was brand new. He looked down and instead of running around proclaiming "I'm healed, I'm healed!" He ran back to worship and to give thanks because his eyes were not on the "I'm" part of this event but on the who. He was busy proclaiming "He healed me!"

In Revelation 19:7-8 it says, "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." In Isaiah it said we get a garment of praise ...so that we can be trees of righteousness and here in Revelation at the wedding feast it is saying the bride is arrayed in fine linen and that it is the righteous acts of the saints. Could it be that putting on our garment of praise is one of those righteous acts?

Don't let the elements of the day get to you; put your garment of praise on. Just as Jesus was about His Father's business; we should be about putting our worship on!

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