What are you wearing today? Is it something comfortable but also makes you look good? Is it clean or did you pull it out of the dirty laundry basket because it’s simply your favorite?

With many of us working from home, our choices are much simpler, and easy to make. Our goal is not to impress our coworkers, but to be as comfortable as possible in our own skin in our own home. We might even be so bold to wear our house pants to the store, or possibly go a step further and keep our slippers on too! Might as well forget about stuff matching, because hey, it is comfortable and warm. Who cares anyway, since everybody else is doing the same thing…

So why am I questioning what you are wearing today? There are two reasons: the 1st one you’ll read about was just put on my heart as I was writing this, therefore I put it ahead of the other, and the 2nd one was the original thought.

1. We need to: Understand the basics.
“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
Genesis 3:21

The Lord God began this clothing process with Adam and Eve after they willfully disobeyed Him in the garden of Eden. He clothed them. He effectively chose to provide them with clothing both physically and spiritually to cover their nakedness both in body and soul. He knew even then that this was something that He would continue to offer for His people for generations to come, culminating with Jesus’ precious shed blood providing us a robe of righteousness, if we would only put it on. You see, He has given us this treasured garment, but it will only fit us if we put it on. It is a gift of God that must be accepted and worn in order for its purpose to be fully realized fulfilled.

We cannot clothe ourselves in our goodness and good deeds and hope to stand before God one day and He approve. We will never be good enough, no matter how many good deeds we do! Because God alone is good, and our version of what it means to be a good person can NEVER equate to what God is. He alone is good. So, what we believe to be a level of goodness is in fact not up to par with God. For that reason, Jesus came from heaven, to teach us what God’s goodness looks and acts like. By accepting Jesus’ sacrificial gift and trusting that He IS Lord, we have an opportunity to stand before God the Father, dressed in His robe of righteousness, and be proclaimed as clean, acceptable, and pure in His eyes.

2. We need to: Understand our attire.
“But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you,…”
Luke 12:28

The Holy Spirit has a way of reminding me of what the Lord desires for me to learn. Today, it was about how I was dressed, but not physically.

You see, our clothes are man-made, therefore they will wear out, get old, shrink, and get holes.
Clothing styles change, so we sell or give away our out-of-date stuff.
Our bodies will change sizes and shapes, so we have to accommodate for that with bigger (or smaller) clothes.

Meanwhile, we are forgetting or ignoring the most important articles of our attire: our garment of salvation, our robe of righteousness, and that we are clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit!! These items are NOT man-made, but are gifts from our Heavenly Father, as His adopted children.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
Isaiah 61:10

“And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:49

This is not something we have to choose daily to put on like our earthly attire, but instead, we need to remind ourselves – those who are redeemed by and follow Jesus – that we are already provided these coverings that will always be with us and will last eternally. Take great care of them! Treasure them! Appreciate them! Our salvation and being made righteous are the most costly garments, as they were made from red-stained cloth soaked in Jesus’ blood, yet now are white as snow, having been cleansed and washed by God.

As a result, there are some specific instructions for us from the Lord regarding our clothing that we need to remember:
a. “…Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5
b. “Do not let your adorning be (only) external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”
1 Peter 3:3-4
c. “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning,”
Luke 12:35
yet:
d. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Matthew 7:15
e. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
Romans 13:14
f. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, …compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you…”
Colossians 3:12-13

The Lord loves us so much, that He willingly put his eternal heavenly life on hold to become one of us, that we might have that eternal heavenly life with Him, dressed to the hilt in his robe of righteousness. We could not accomplish this on our own, but only by His extreme, mystifying, overwhelming love, are we clothed today in His perfectly good garment of salvation.

“..and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:23-24

As you get dressed for another day, ponder on, pray to and praise the Lord about having been given such an exceptional undeserved gift, this garment of salvation, this robe of righteousness.
Wear it with joy, with thanksgiving, with humility, and with class.

Food for thought: “Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.”
—Marc Jacobs
“The way we dress affects the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act, and the way others react to us.”
—Judith Rasband

Fun facts: 1. Every year, more than 80 billion articles of clothing are produced and sold around the world. 2. The average American throws out about 82 lbs. of textile waste per year.

Photo by: Kari Wiseman – Isaac Ferguson Dillard in his Purple Garment

***For more information on Isaac Ferguson Dillard and his line of clothing or his ministry, go to: Isaac Ferguson Dillard on Facebook or Instagram.