There are days, everything goes wrong. We may feel discouraged, depressed about various difficult circumstances and problems. Or tired because of situations that don’t change the way we want them to. We have long prayed for a breakthrough, but it doesn’t seem to work. There are many reasons to complain and be resigned.
However, there is always reason to be happy and joyfull, regardless of what is going on outside. It all depends on where we look. The psalmist David writes in Psalm 5:12:
“Let be happy in you, those who love your name .But all who seek refuge by you will be happy. Their jubilation knows no bounds, because in you they are safe. “
At the beginning of the psalm David laments the bad conditions in the country, he asked the Lord to listen to his groans and cried out to God for help.
“You are my King and my God, I scream to you, I beg you! Lord, you hear my calling early in the morning. Very early in the morning I bring my requests to you and longingly wait for your answer. For injustice you cannot keep silent ”Psalm 5: 3-5
David brings his requests, his suffering, his lament, he lets go of everything with God and so at the end of the Psalm he finds joy again in the focus on God. And so we are also allowed to bring everything to God that burdens us and direct our gaze to him. In him we can be happy and cheer because we know and love his name. When we seek refuge with him, our jubilation knows no bounds, because we are safe with him.
To be “in him” what does that mean for me? For me this means to be rooted in the love of God, to live in connection with God, to align myself with him and strive for his will. In the relationship with God I find joy and reason to cheer.
- I rejoice in God my Savior. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that all who believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life” John 3:16
- I enjoy fellowship with God I am happy to be a child of God through faith in Jesus “But those who welcomed him and believed in him, he gave them the right to become children of God” John 1:12
- I rejoice in God’s good plan for the world and for my life “I have plans for you that are full of future and hope. Jer 29.11
- . I am happy about God’s love “God is love; and whoever abides in love abides in God and God in him. ”1 John 4:16 b
“I am happy in the Lord, and my soul rejoices in my God; for he has put on me the clothes of salvation and dressed in the cloak of righteousness, adorned like a bridegroom with a priestly headdress and like a bride who is emblazoned in her jewelry “(Isaiah 61,10)
The joy in the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of all joy. If, even on difficult days, I focus my gaze on this joy, on the joy in God, on his love, I remain hopeful, confident and know that I am safe with him, no matter what. That gives me strength and strength in every situation. A joy that comes from communion with God and his unconditional love and grace, which always remains the same until after death. The certainty of his love for me, which is always there, no matter what, helps me in times of challenge, when the sun is not shining, in times when storms are raging in life, not to lose my joy and to hold on to God always has a good plan and that he knows me and never leaves me alone in any situation.
“Do not be troubled; for the joy in the Lord is your strength. ”Nehemiah 8:10