I Will Rejoice This Year

Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it”.

How many times have you heard this verse –

Yet it’s so difficult to live it out. Life gets all up in the way.

We set our expectations for the year on Jan. 1st and we never even give thought to the bad days that will inevitably come.

People are rude. The to-do list grows by the minute. You get a parking ticket. You spill your coffee.

It seems so difficult in these moments of annoyance and frustration to say “-I will rejoice”.

More serious things happen.

We lose a job. Our friends leave. People get sick. We lose loved ones.

It is nearly an impossible task to get up the next morning and say “-I will be glad in it.”

For the longest time I thought if I just fake it, plaster a smile on my face and say this verse, no one will know that inside I’m really saying “Why God?” “Why did you create this day? This is not the one I had in mind.”

Friend, He has you in mind. This is why we can rejoice. This is the reason that we can look our circumstances in the face and say “The joy my God provides is greater than my present situation, and today, this year, I choose to rejoice.”

Hard days this year are sure to come. But God’s love, provision, strength, and joy go before them, are in the midst of them, and are all around them. We can choose to be victims of our circumstances, to let them crush us and our spirit, or we can stand tall and say

“Yes, this may be happening but my God hasn’t left and because of that I rejoice!”

“I may be getting beat down, but I stand firm in the word of the Lord and it says no weapon formed will prosper and because of that I’m glad. (Isaiah 54:17).

“I may be hurting right now but He turns my mourning into dancing, so I will choose to say this is the day that the Lord has made I WILL rejoice and be glad in it.

Because of who our God is, we can rejoice in the hard times.

Let this year be the year of rejoicing in His goodness!