"I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.” Isaiah 61:10
Isaiah 61:10 explains that the garments of praise spoken about in verse 3 are the garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness. Garments are things we choose to put on. God offers His robe of righteousness to you through Christ’s shed blood on the cross. He not only wants you to receive this so that you can have eternal life, but He also wants you to accept daily that He has forgiven you and that you have been made righteous (holy and pure) in His eyes. The beginning of Isaiah 61:10 says, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.” Joy comes to our heart when we accept the robe of righteousness. In verse 3, this garment is referred to as one of praise! Praise results from walking in the truth of our forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation (Excerpt from Crown of Beauty - Study 3: A Garment of Praise).
The Lord has been showing me lately that the key here is daily putting on this garment (robe) of righteousness that is already ours in Christ. Though God the Father sees us as completely righteous, because of Christ, if we are going to walk/live a righteous, holy, and pure life, we have to daily put our robe on. We must accept our identity in Christ, every single day and choose to walk in that identity, or in other words identify with it. If we are believing lies about self, or lies about God and our relationship with Him, they will hinder us from walking in our God-given identity. Therefore we begin to act and behave under a false identity (a lie we are believing) and mold into that false identity. Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44) wants to keep us bound to these lies and sabotage us from knowing, embracing, and walking in our true identity in Christ. Often the longer we stay bound to that lie, the more normal and familiar the thinking and behaviors that flow out of it will become. We then begin to identify more and more under a false identity of the world, experiencing the shame, confusion, and despair that come with it. The longer we stay here, the harder it can become to envision what freedom really looks like. Jesus wants to meet you there. He wants to help you take off the wrong garments. Jesus has given you His robe of righteousness, it is your garment fitted just for you. Every day it must be put on. It is there that you and I will experience what Isaiah is speaking of in chapter 61:10 and the joy that comes with it. I hope you noticed this key word: Identity.
1) As a believer, where is your identity found? Or rather who is your identity found in?
2) What is keeping you from walking in your identity in Christ?
I’d encourage you to specifically pray over the things, people, behaviors, etc. that you answered with in question 2. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you surrender those things fully over to God and receive your rightful identity each day in those areas.
*I also purposefully chose to keep most of the nouns in this post plural to remind us that we all experience this from time to time and in different areas. However, I challenge you to re-read this post and use “I” instead of we/us to make it even more personal. Praying for you, sister!
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10; "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" John 14:6; "Then you will know the truth [Jesus], and the truth [Jesus] will set you free.” John 8:32
-Nancy Martin
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