| “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to … provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” |
| —Isaiah 61:1, 3 |
We all remember the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” which began with Jack going to market for his mother to sell their old cow that no longer gave milk. On the way, Jack met a man who sweet-talked him into trading the cow for five “magic” beans. And. you likely remember how that opened Jack up to a whole lot of trouble, including being chased by a giant.
Now, not all of the exchanges we make in our lives end up quite the way that one did. But, as Christians, we have actually entered into an agreement with God that will forever result in an unequal exchange.
Ephesians 2:4 tells us:
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
So, the very first unequal exchange God has made with us involves Him giving us life for death.
If we look truthfully at ourselves, we must say that God has given us everything in exchange for our nothingness. Scripture tells us that we have nothing to offer Him in payment for our sin and in exchange for our new life except the gift of ourselves.
As we grow in grace, we realize that God wants to give us His strength in exchange for our weakness, His infinite knowledge for our confusion, His clear vision for our blindness, His health for our hurts, His answers for our questions, His power for our powerlessness.
In the verse quoted at the top, we see that He wants to give us joy for our mourning and a garment of praise for a heaviness we can’t take off ourselves.
Christ has taken our rags of sinfulness from us in exchange for His robe of righteousness. He has exchanged our life of futility for a new life of usefulness and an eternal future with Him. What a terribly lopsided exchange!
When you pray, allow yourself to picture two columns—the first with all your needs, and the second with everything that God can provide you in exchange. May this exercise cause you to thank Him for all He has to give you and exclaim with the Psalmist’s words in Psalm 103:2:
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
