Clothed in Righteousness

Often what you put on can determine how you feel.  When you have just the right dress, suit, shirt, shoes or hat, it adds something to your overall demeanor. By the same token, you could put something on that is very uncomfortable or isn't suitable for an occasion, it can make you feel less than you should.

What if you had worms and clods of dust all over your body?  How would you feel.? In Job 7:5, Job describes this very condition. He had so many negative things hit him all at once.  By all worldly standards he could have felt very badly about himself and in an irrecoverable funk. Righteousness was on his side:

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. Job 29:14

The word 'clothed' in this verse is use seven times in the book of Job. This is the 5th use.  Righteousness put his mind in a different place. It was a grace place, gave him confidence and guarded his heart.

And that ye put on (clothe with) the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:24

Under the New Testament covenant,God has given us something to clothe us that is permanent. It works from the inside out. It is God's wonderful gift of holy spirit. Righteousness is confidence, assurance and access to God without worrying about where we have failed or fallen short.  God's love is so much bigger that we can ever imagine. When we get to the place of really believing it, we are released from anything that pulls us down. Job lived in the Old Testament time; we live in the New Testament time after the resurrection  and ascension of Jesus Christ. We are connected in a unique way to our God. There are plenty of negative things going on on around us, but God's gift informs us and equips us to handle what ever comes up and produce fruit of the spirit when we utilize that gift and trust him:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (slow to anger), gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness(coachable), temperance (self-control): against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

These qualities don't need to be legislated like the works of the flesh. It is great to be around people who understand the spirit of God as it works in each of our lives. It is 'church' in the true Biblical sense of the word.