Rejoice always
This fresh set of Daily Devotions is being provided for our LCA/NZ family, friends and visitors to help us to keep our eyes on Jesus as we face unsettling times. They can be used by families and individuals as part of the LCA/NZ’s Church@Home resources to encourage us and build trust in our Heavenly Father during this season of uncertainty and physical isolation.
by Pastor Glenn Crouch
Click here for your printable verse to carry with you today.
‘Though the fig tree does not blossom … yet will I rejoice in the Lord’ (Habakkuk 3:17,18).
We often tie ‘rejoicing’ to when things go very well for us. We rejoice when we have a bumper harvest; when our child achieves one of his/her goals; when the weekend arrives; even when we get a good parking space. While we should indeed praise our gracious Lord for the many blessings he supplies, each and every day, we often fall into the trap of only praising him when things go well.
The prophet in this passage writes a beautiful song that is basically saying: ‘Even if everything goes wrong, and I end up without any job, not knowing where my next meal is coming from, or how I pay this week’s bills, I will still praise the Lord!’ He knows that the Lord is his Saviour. He knows that while the world around him is falling apart, our Sovereign Lord is in charge. Justice will prevail. God will come and set the world aright!
We know that God did come, as one of us, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and lived, suffered and died for all of us and that our Father raised him on that glorious Sunday morning. What the prophet looked forward to, we remember. We rejoice in what God has already done for us. We rejoice that we are daughters and sons of the most high; brothers and sisters of our Lord and Saviour – not through what we have done but through his death and resurrection.
It is not because we enjoy hardship, that we rejoice – but because we focus on the cross and what was done for us. Rejoice! God loves you so much that he sent his only Son to die for you!
Gracious Father, I don’t like the way the world is currently. I miss so much. Help me to trust in you. Fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit, so that I might be like the prophet and rejoice in these difficult times. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
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