Shout for Joy

For You have made me rejoice, LORD,

by what You have done;

I will shout for joy because of the

works of Your hands.

                    Psalm 92:4  HCSB

Last night I shouted for joy when I answered my phone to hear, “I asked Jesus into my heart!” Our six-year-old granddaughter, Ilayna Joy, enthusiastically repeated those words to me and again to her grandfather. As we shared our great joy with her and our son, I began to think of God’s bountiful blessings.

God gives many reasons to shout and sing for joy. However, I often get bogged down on the treadmill of daily living and store my joy to be expressed at another time, in another place, or on another day.  Have you had that experience? Then with the passage of time cobwebs cover your joy, sorrows silence your joy, or life’s stresses push your joy to a dark and distant corner of your mind. And before you know it, your joy is neatly tucked away like hay in a barn.

I would challenge you to try this experiment today—choose joy! Open the barn door of your stored joy, remember the God moments of your life, see the great and mighty things God has done. Focus on the goodness of God and His loving, holy, merciful, and patient faithfulness. Choose to see Him in your circumstance. Choose to acknowledge Him in your situation. Choose to recognize Him in what may seem an impossible path.

Choose joy! Recognize the works of His hands today. Look around. He is everywhere. He whispers through the breeze and rides on the wind. He shines through the sun and watches through the clouds. He speaks through His Word and waits patiently for you and me to recognize Him and “shout for joy because of the works of Your (His) hands.”

In Christ, there is reason for much joy. Choose joy. Shout for joy!

© Joyce Powell