Isaiah 61:3
“… and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair…”
I used to wallow, and I’ll be honest, I still catch myself moving though days, even weeks, with this Eeyore type rain cloud covering my day. People always answer the “drinking glass” question as “OH! I’m half full,” but more often than not we can slip into a wallowing state of negativity and soon our cup is always half empty.
When despair knocks on our door, some of us swing it open and let him in, wallowing in every last ounce of pain and suffering he let’s seep into our lives. When our world faces a pandemic and the fear of losing loved ones creeps up, we open the door and wallow. When peaceful protests turn to riots and our country struggles to stay united, we open the door and wallow.
But, nowhere in the bible are we encouraged to sit in our misery and wallow. We’re actually presented with a completely different solution. We’re told, when despair knocks on our door, to open it and throw on a garment of praise.
I know what you’re thinking… Praise? Really?
Yes, praise. When we’re standing with a heaviness that feels as if it’s crushing us, we praise. We pull on a garment of praise, turn to Jesus and acknowledge how good he is, how mighty and gracious he is, how holy and wonderful he is. We may open a door to despair, but we don’t invite him in to wallow with, we sing praises in his face. We scream the truth we know of the goodness of God. We show our neighbors a joy and hope that’s foreign to most. We respond with praise because we know how the story ends, we know who our king is, and praise is and should always be our only response.
Today, as our world faces heaviness, let us stand out as a peculiar people and praise. My prayer is that our response to despair always be praise to Jesus. Let our neighbors look in awe as we face the trials of life with hands raised to heaven, our hearts focused on Jesus (a good good friend and even better savior). How are you going to respond when despair is knocking on your door? The time to praise is now.