Shout for joy when you remember God's love and faithfulness.
We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. 5 For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and His faithfulness continues to each generation.
This world is a noisy place, it is so bad that there are people that have issues with sensory overload, everything begins to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. It can be very easy to lose your joy in the middle of all of this irritating noise.
The noise that the world makes is not joyful, there are so many people that are angry yelling about whatever, there are cell phones ringing and Facebook notifications and text messages dinging. Construction equipment, political ads, airplanes and gunfire, this world fills up our heads with unpleasant sounds all day long.
The noise that God's people make should be joyful, it is a celebration of who he is and what he has done for us, when you realize how incredibly good he has been it should make you a noisy person. We should be the noisiest people around, clapping our hands, shouting and singing praises, playing instruments and even dancing to express our gratitude with joyful abandon. (Psalm 95:1; 98:6; 149:3; 1 Chronicles 15:28).
Yes, I know, there is a time for quiet reverence in the presence of God and he often speaks in a still small voice but he also delights in us giving it our all to thank him for who he is and what he has done. (Psalm 5:7; 95:6)
Heaven is a noisy place, our voices will not be silent in heaven, we will be joining in with what is already going on there. (Revelation 5:6-14, 14:1-3, 19:1-2) When we break out into song and worship God we are getting a head start on heaven, bringing a piece of heaven to earth, why should we wait until we get there?
| Colossians 3:15-17 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. |
The only way to maintain our joy is through thankfulness, if we feel like we didn't get something good that we deserved, then our joy will quickly disappear. Counting our blessings and giving God credit for them all brings joy that will last.
The Christmas season is coming when we will be tempted to celebrate our gifts from each other. This can bring joy for a season, or maybe just 5 minutes, but if we focus on thankfulness for the greatest gift ever then we will always have a joyful heart.
Lord help me to make a joyful noise all of the time. You are great and you should be praised greatly for your glory and for your great gifts that you give to us everyday. I want to sing your praises now and get a head start on what I will be doing in heaven.
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