Me--Beautiful?

“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, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” Isaiah 61:10-11 NIV

Sometimes a passage of Scripture will take my breath away. This is one of those passages. These verses are an inspiring hymn of praise. God has beautifully clothed me in salvation as his bride. In other words, God loves ME. He sees me as sinless because Jesus cleansed me through the shedding of his blood. Me sinless!?! Why I cannot go through an hour of life without having a sinful thought, saying a sinful word, or making a sinful action. Amazing grace!

But we would be remiss to stop there. This passage goes on to say that “the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up.” Of course if God wants to do so, he can. However, we are to always read verses in context. Just a few verses earlier, God gives us a hint about how he is going to accomplish this task.

“And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God.” Isaiah 61:6a NIV

So God expects his people to be priests. We are to not keep our faith a secret. We are to proclaim God’s truth to the unsaved. Do I correctly understand this passage? Let’s look just a few verses previous to this one.

“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,” Isaiah 61:1 NIV

We have our instructions. God’s call is not one of coaching from the stands where there is little risk and much bravado. We are to be in the game witnessing to whatever team God has placed on the field-- the poor, brokenhearted, captives and prisoners. God has given us a job to do. How can we refuse our loving Lord?

Lord, show me to whom you want me to witness today. Give me the right words and right actions to be a powerful witness in any and every encounter.