This Is The Day The Lord Has Made

Psalm 118:24 says “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Every week recently at Compass Bible Church we have been singing the song “This Is the Day”. The lyrics to this song are quite simple yet encouraging and convicting for the believer. I am reminded that we can be glad and rejoice everyday we wake up because this day has been God-made! In fact this day has been ordained and planned perfectly by the hand of God. God is in control, He reigns, He is sovereign and therefore our circumstances are not by chance. Whether everything in our lives seems to be going great as the hand of the Lord seems to be blessing us or whether we are suffering as we go through a trial we can rejoice and be glad in today!

The word rejoice in the Greek means to be exceedingly glad and to be glad means to be well and thriving. What a neat concept to think about. As Christians no matter what is going on in this world or in our lives we can always say we are well! It reminds me of the hymn, my favorite hymn by Horatio Spafford “It is Well With My Soul”. “This hymn was writ¬ten af¬ter several trau¬matic events in Spaf¬ford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, shortly followed by the great Chi¬ca¬go Fire which ru¬ined him fi¬nan¬cial¬ly (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the S.S. Ville Du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business. While cross¬ing the At¬lan¬tic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with an¬o¬ther ship, and all four of Spaf¬ford's daugh¬ters died. His wife Anna sur¬vived and sent him the now fa¬mous tel¬e¬gram, "Saved alone." Shortly afterwards, as Spaf¬ford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daugh¬ters had died.” (Wikipedia) In this hymn as we read about bliss and sorrow Spafford ends each thing with “it is well with my soul”.

As Christians that is the truth! We can rejoice today and always and be well because we have been saved by a living powerful and loving God who has planned and ordained today and who is in complete control!

Always Give Yourselves Fully

1 Corinthians 15:58 says,
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Today Pastor Bobby challenged the summer interns with this very idea. It was both encouraging and convicting as I began to realize the depth of meaning found here. As disciples of Christ we are not given the option of not giving ourselves FULLY to the work of Christ. Always doesn't mean sometimes or when you feel like it and fully doesn't mean 50%, 80%, or even 99.9% it is 100% all the time! What a thought that is to think that if each of us as followers of Christ were living to fully give our lives to the Lord's work how radically different our world would look.

As summer approaches or for some has arrived I pray that we would seek to take every opportunity to serve the Lord and do His work wherever that might be. I pray that our summers wouldn't be wasted with mundane daily tasks, boring ourselves to death on the computer, or entertaining ourselves to death with video games, movies or music but rather that we would redeem this time for the Lord. No matter where God puts us, whether it be working in a church or working at the neighbor's house pulling weeds, He has created us as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10 as His workmanship to do good works for Him. May that be our goal this summer and always! May we seek time alone with Him in prayer, in His Word and meditating on His truths to sharpen and encourage us.

We cannot do this in our own strength, in fact we cannot do anything good apart from Him. We must continually depend on him for all we need. When the days get hard and we feel like we can't serve Him with our whole hearts we must lean on Him, when we are exhausted and feel like we can't put in that extra hour of ministry we need to depend on Him, and when that opportunity to do the Lord's work arises and we have something we'd rather do we must die to ourselves and serve Him!

May we as Christians, followers of Christ, shine like lights in this world and how better then giving ourselves fully to HIS work wherever and whatever that may be.

What A Friend

This old hymn brings so much joy and encouragement to me every time I read it because I am reminded of God's faithfulness and unchanging character.

What A Friend We Have in Jesus
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield thee;
thou wilt find a solace there.

He truly is the best friend we have or could ever want or need...