Song of the Day
“Joy of the Lord” by Rend Collective
Devotional thought
There are times we will not see God at work in a situation, or feel His hand in ours, but we must intentionally trust that He is there. I say intentionally because it is a hard thing for the mind to convince the heart of anything! See, our emotions are a very difficult thing to overcome by rationalization and truth. But it must be done!
That is why I love to sing this song by Rend Collective. Because it speaks of intentionality and faith as we face various things in our life. “Though the tears may fall, Though my heart may fail, my song will rise to You”, is a lyric we sing. So, do you see the resolve of the author to say that no matter what we face we will respond with a song, a confession of faith that says we trust God through it?
As we see in Nehemiah 8:10, there are times when we have to choose to trust God and rejoice in what He has done and is doing in our life. In the context of this text, Ezra the Scribe opened up the Word of God and read it to the people of Jerusalem. And, while he was reading the text, the people became so overwhelmed with conviction that they started to weep.
So, Nehemiah told them not to cry but to rejoice at the fact that God had shown them these things. That is also what it says in Ps 32:11, for the godly to rejoice and shout for joy over the faithfulness that we experience from the Lord! Don’t allow your present situation to rob you of the joy that comes from trusting in the Lord!
But, this definitely is a discipline that must be exercised by faith. There is much that can get us down these days and that can potentially drive us to joyless living. With that in mind though, we must keep up our guard against this type of living as Christians. Our joy comes from the Lord, and it is our strength as we face various trials. So, let’s be resolved to stay in the joy of the Lord at all times!
Prayer
Oh God of joy, I praise You for imparting to me Your joy and peace as I trust in You. I appreciate knowing that I have a choice in the matter, and I embrace You by faith even now Lord. Please teach me how to reject joyless living and to embrace You with shouts of joy! I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Scripture to reflect upon
(Please hover, or click onto, the Scriptures to read the specified text!)
- Nehemiah 8:10,
- Ps 32:11,
- Rom 15:13,
- Ps 51:12,
- Ps 126:5,
- Phil 4:4,
Memory Verse
