This morning I woke and headed to the kitchen to turn the coffee on. I had woken just a few minutes earlier and it had not yet turned on automatically. The kitchen was still dark telling me that although it was still summer, the seasons are already changing.

It was then that I noticed I was humming….paying attention, the words came flooding back….

“This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made – that the Lord has made. I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it & be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.”

As I waited for the coffee to finish, I found the verse in my concordance – Psalm 118:24

“This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”.

I kept looking at it and it dawned on me… this is not looking like a suggestion but as a command. In other words, it was as if God were saying, “Do it!”.

If I were to be honest, rejoicing comes easier some days than others. Yet if I am reading this correctly, we are not being given a choice in rejoicing. We are to do it.

So what’s the deal with “rejoicing”?

1. We rejoice intentionally. We will need to determine that we WILL rejoice. We may need to rejoice before we feel like rejoicing.
2. We rejoice assuredly. We remember that God has responded to us in the past and He will surely respond to us again (Psalm 118:21).
3. We rejoice remembering. We recall that there have been things that God has done that only He could have done. They are marvelous and are His doing (Psalm 118:23).  That word “marvelous” comes from the Hebrew word “pala” “denoting the FACT that He does things which are beyond the bounds of human powers or expectations.” (Old Testament Lexical Aids from the Key Word Bible).
4. We rejoice with confidence. We rest confidently, that He is the One Who grants us success (Psalm 118: 25).
5. We rejoice with anticipation. We hold onto Him with hope that He will shine His light upon us and our circumstances (Psalm 118:27).

These verses sandwich one verse which encapsulates the foundation of our rejoicing –

The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone (verse 22) .

We are able to rejoice TODAY not because of where we may find ourselves presently but because the battle for our lives and circumstances has already been won.

Remember…

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!

May we rejoice intentionally today! We can do it!!!

Today I am linked with …… Hear It, Use It and Mon. Musings and Grace Laced Mondays and Playdates With God and  Inspire Me Mon. and Making Your Home Sing and Mommy Mon. Blog Hop and Ladies Only and Sharing His Beauty .