Isaiah 61 ends saying that a garden spouts up what is sown into it and that righteousness and praise is going to sprout up before all the nations.

If righteousness and praise are going to sprout when Jesus returns and rules, when was it sown?

We are the sowers. Right now, we can be sowing the seeds of righteousness and praise that will sprout for eternity!

This chapter talks about a bride adorned in jewels, but it’s using that as a description. The true beauty being described is her righteousness. He covers us with His righteousness. We’re robed in righteousness. It’s our garment of salvation, which becomes our garment of praise!

One more piece of clothing given to us is a beautiful headdress. That caught my attention because I’m memorizing Isaiah 3 at the moment, and the Lord takes away the headdress of the proud. Who gets one in Isaiah 61? Those who mourn. Who mourns? Those who are grieved.

What are we to be grieving over? Sin. Any sin in your life, anything taking your attention and affection away from Jesus, any sin and its impact on this world, it’s all grief inducing.

But there is something we can do about it. There’s something we’ve been sent to do about it.

We have the Spirit of the Lord upon us, do we not?

We have an anointing. That means we’ve been sent into ministry. It’s the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We’re to bring the good news to the poor. We’re to bind up for healing the brokenhearted. We’re to proclaim freedom to the captives. We’re to open the prison doors for those trapped.

We’re to proclaim the good news that Jesus sets us free from that sin that grieves and poisons and kills. And we’re freed into righteousness that heals and gives life.