New Clothes

Father,

Good morning! Oh, hear my prayer this morning as it rises to you in your sanctuary. Let the sounds it carries be blessings to your ears. I long for the thoughts and meditations of the heart that fuels it be pleasing to you.

This morning I ask for us to allow you to grow and manifest the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. In these daily encounters, in these hourly routines I pray you would clothe us in the garment that is Jesus. Help us to slip our arms into the softness and sturdiness of Him—that we would be clothed with his righteousness, with the attitude of his mind and the bent of his spirit.

Give us the courage today to exchange our worn out, tattered and soiled rags for the robes you have waiting for your children. We tend to forget who we really are. We want to hang on to the rags, wrap them around our nakedness hoping fervently they cover more than they really do. Shredded and faded they hang on us and we cling to them. Don’t let us cling to these threadbare garments. Help us to shrug out of them and leave them behind.

Leave them behind and stand gloriously bare. Stripped.

Naked before you—like a child waiting for her mother to dress her. Enable us to lift our arms and allow these garments to slip down over our thin arms and over our drooped heads.

Father, I praise you this morning because these garments do not wear out. They do not tatter. They will not soil. They do not become threadbare. They are not ripped. They are not tainted with the grime and dirt of our daily living. Thank you that this is how you choose to clothe your children.

Let us be like the sweet child who came to me the other day and said, “Look at me. Look at this!” and she spun and twirled before me. She wanted me to see how her dress rose and fluted and fluttered out before her. She was so pleased. Help us to be like this sweet child, Father.

Pleased. Satisfied. Content with the clothing you have provided.

Bless you this morning. Thank you this morning. Praise you this morning!

Amen and amen