Daily Devotion for March 25

 

A HEART FULL OF JOY!

 

What fills your heart with joy? Maybe it's your hobbies? Maybe it is your family or friends? I know my granddaughters fill my heart with joy every day! One of them sent me a text the other night saying that she loves me very much and she misses me! Believe me, that made my day! That filled my heart with joy! Whatever it is for you, it fills your heart and puts a song on your lips.

 

Did you know that we fill our heavenly Father's heart with joy? We make Him sing for joy. He finds great joy in his children. Zephaniah 3:17  tells us:  "...he will rejoice over you with gladness,     he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

 

Sometimes having a heart full of joy is all about what we focus on. Isaiah says: "Sing for joy...break forth, O mountains, into singing!" Now, let me make one thing clear...I CAN'T SING!! But that has never stopped me from trying. I like to think that I am following the Psalmist's instruction to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord."  I remember heading to the little country church I pastored in West Virginia one beautiful Sunday morning. I was listening to some gospel music and singing at the top of my lungs, "It's Shoutin' Time in Heaven!" All of a sudden I saw the church in my rear-view mirror. OOPS! That was one time I was "so heavenly minded that I was no earthly good!"

 

I know that it's easy to get so consumed with the pain and sorrow in our lives and lose sight of the Mighty God we serve. The Lord comforts His people and has compassion on those who are afflicted. We need to focus on worshipping Him. Take your needs to Him, cry out in pain at your affliction, but give it to Him and then turn your focus on what is essential, our worship.

 

Maybe you think there is not much you have to be joyful over right now, but that isn't true...

 

We can be joyful over the fact that we are new creations in Jesus Christ. Not only that but we are being sanctified.  Philippians 1:6  says "He who began a good work in you will complete it to the end of days." That means that God continues to work in us to transform us into the image of Christ. And we can rejoice over the fact that we have been justified. Christ's death on the cross made it just if we never sinned. Our past isn't hung over our head; it is entirely forgotten by God. And Brothers and Sisters - that is something to sing about!

 

Let us pray: Thank you, Lord, that even in the hard times we can have a heart full of joy! Amen.

 

                                                                  Pastor Ruth