The Reasons We Don’t Rejoice
Psalm 118:24 – “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Sometimes I find myself on one of those “do you remember when” type websites. There is something fun about looking back and remembering. Remembering the games we used to play or the shows we use to watch or the places we use to go. It can be very enjoyable and can create a sense of nostalgia within. There is nothing wrong with looking back and remembering. In fact for us as Christians we should look back and be thankful for the people and opportunities that God has blessed us with, we should look back and see how God has been faithful and how He has delivered us. There is nothing wrong with looking back.
There is also nothing wrong with looking forward. We ought to think and pray and dream about the future. We especially ought to live with our minds firmly entrenched on the Kingdom of God and we should live thinking about heaven. After all Jesus was able to endure the horror of the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. There is nothing wrong with prayerfully and joyfully looking forward.
Yet if we are not careful both of these things can steal away our joy. If we live only thinking about the good old days we will miss out on this day. For instance if I live thinking only about the past and how good things were then or how simple they were then (in reality they weren’t simple), then I will miss out on today. I will miss out on living today, in this gift that God has given me, the gift of today. That is why the Bible says “this is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.” If we live in the past we will miss out on the present. Take time to look back and be thankful, take time to laugh and to rejoice and days gone by, but most importantly take time to live in the now. Take time to rejoice in the now because this day is a gift from God and it deserves its own rejoicing.
On the flip side if we only live thinking about the future we will miss out on the present. If our thoughts are I’ll be happy when I make more money, or when I finish school, or when I have kids, or when summer is finally here, or when I get married or whatever then we will miss out on today. And there are a lot of reasons to rejoice in today. You are loved by Almighty God, if you have a relationship with Jesus you are forgiven of your sins, He is with you, and yes you do have the promise of heaven to look forward to. Again theres nothing wrong with looking forward but there is something wrong if it keeps us from rejoicing in the now.
There are a lot of things that can steal our joy away. There are a lot of things that keep us from rejoicing. If we believe our best days are behind us we won’t rejoice. Can I tell you a beautiful truth? If you are a follower of Christ your best days are ahead of you. If we believe that we have to have something in the future to make us happy we will again miss out. What we do have in the future (the inheritance of the Kingdom of God) does make us happy and give us reason to rejoice, but that is not an earthly thing but a heavenly one.
Of course these aren’t the only things that can steal our joy away. Living with regret can, living with worry can, being fearful can. But in a lot of those cases we are still looking back or looking forward in the wrong way. Worry and fear are about the future and regret it about the past. We need to make sure most importantly we have made plans for eternity, but then we need to make sure that we are living in the present and rejoicing in today. This is the day the Lord has made let us be glad and rejoice in it.
revrunjon 