This is the Day....

My pastor growing up would start each sermon(or most anyway) with the phrase: "This is the day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

My sunday school teacher in 11th grade was quite a character and he loved to repeat the phrase when we arrived in his class...

As children we sing the song, "This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made, etc"

And yet, I find, that it is easy to forget that truth on some days. We either forget that the Lord has had a hand in our day because we just forget, or we don't let him in. Or we forget to rejoice and be glad.

Each day we have on earth is such a gift. Each day has so many hours in it that we can bring God glory, that we can revel in his power, revel in his grace, and sit in His prescence.

Each day- even the days that are dark- have a reason to rejoice. I think about one of the darkest days recorded in the Bible. Luke 23: 44-46:
Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until the middle of the afternoon. The sun stopped shining, and the curtain in the temple split down the middle. Jesus shouted, "Father, I put myself in your hands!" Then he died.

So much grief, so much distress, so much pain for those that were there and didn't know the whole story. But, we do. And we can see the reasons to rejoice on such a dark day- because we know who is the Victor, the one God in complete control.

The darkness showed how much the Father loved- it led to the tearing down of the veil so that we all have access to God, the Father. And we have the greatest example of Jesus- who willingly put himself in His father's hands.

So much truth for us.

Darkness in our life doesn't last forever, and many times it allows us to appreciate the light so much more. That we have access to our Heavenly father ourselves is so incredible amazing! I am so glad I do not have to rely on other humans for my contact with God. And just like Jesus, I want to put myself in my Father's hands on a daily basis.

Not easy by any means. Not easy to put myself under someone else's control, not easy to rejoice in each day, not easy to be glad- but great reminders that God's plan, His purposes, His ways our NOT ours!

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

Thank God!

"This is the day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and Be glad in it!" (Psalm 118:24