God gives us several commands throughout His Word to
rejoice in Him. When God thinks a concept is worth repeating, it is definitely
worthy of our consideration (Psalm 32:11, 35:9, 64:10, 97:12, 104:34; Isaiah
29:10, 41:16; Joel 2:23; Habakkuk 3:18; Zechariah 10:7; Philippians 3:1, 4:4).
When the joy of the Lord fills our spirit, it also
affects our body and soul - our thoughts, choices and feelings. It influences
our words and actions and how we relate to our self and to other people.
It affects our relationship with the Lord and helps us to
sing the praises to Him that He is worthy to receive (Psalm 147:1). We pray
about everything and give thanks in everything, even in the negative aspects of
our life (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
The Lord puts a hymn of praise, a new song, in our heart
(Psalm 40:3). We come before His presence with thanksgiving as we make a joyful
noise to Him in song (Psalm 100). His joy is our continual source of strength
(Nehemiah 8:10).
God's Word is living and powerful and teaches us to abide
in our spirit rather than in our body and our soul (Hebrews 4:12; John 15:11;
Galatians 2:20). He opens the eyes of our understanding to the opportunities we
have to walk and live in His Spirit.
God helps us to discern between the desires of our flesh
and the leading of His Spirit. We no longer allow the appetites of our body,
considerations of our mind or fickleness of our emotions to dictate our
thoughts, words or behavior.
Instead we seek the Lord to reveal the root source of any
negative impulses we experience and to free us from any dictates of our flesh, any
influence of the world and any tyranny of the devil over our life.
Prayer:
Father God, we submit our spirit, body and soul - our
every thought, choice and emotion - to Your Spirit. Our union with You consumes
our every waking moment, and we want nothing more than for You to live Your
life in and through us. Remind us not to worry about anything, but to seek Your
will in ceaseless prayer.
We want to live a life of continual joy, prayer and
thanksgiving to You through Christ in us (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). We thank
You for meeting all of our needs, and for giving us Your peace, which is not
dependent on our human reasoning and understanding, and which guards our hearts
and minds as we live, move and have our being in Christ alone (Philippians
4:4-6; Acts 17:28).
Thought for the Day:
The Lord loves us so much that He actually takes delight
in us and rejoices over us with singing. - Zephaniah 3:17
Many thanks to Matt Milligan for the use of his photo.
