If you come over to my home you will see a large black frame with a word image on a blackboard. I rotate the image several times during the year to fit the season. My current image has the words from Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
As I walked past it I thought… hmm… really. Rejoice in today? A cloudy day with news in continued coverage about a world in chaos, families unsure about health and job security, and children on the brink of quarantine/school issue insanity?
The whisper back? Yes. Rejoice in Today.
These words are part of a song that we sang all the time growing up. “This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!” My mom would sometimes wake me up singing it, and now I do the same for my kids. It’s an easy song to sing when everything feels right, but when everything feels wrong, can we still say, “I will rejoice?”
These days can really shake us, maybe even put us into a spiral of worry and fear. And one of the biggest consequences of this unprecedented time of uncertainty for all of us is the ramifications of allowing this fear to overwhelm our thoughts. The Bible makes it clear that our thinking and our hearts are inseparable. What we think affects our heart. How we think affects our heart.
In other words, we have to be intentional about what we allow ourselves to think about. Craig Groeschel says it well – “Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts.” If our strongest thoughts are full of fear, we will live timid and small, worried about what’s next, constantly unsure of our direction and identity. I think that there is a better way to live.
I have to be intentional, too, about how I think! And as I have thought about how I want to live during this unique period of uncertainty, I am resetting my focus on being grateful for today. “THIS is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I get to live TODAY, to enjoy TODAY, and to max out TODAY.
I have a close friend who has struggled with the direction of her thoughts for years. She starts every day by taking five minutes to write down five things that she is grateful for. It’s a small habit that has transformed her life. If you are finding yourself full of anxiety, try it! Write down small things, big things, repeat things… there are so many things to rejoice over! Being in a grateful state of mind will not only benefit you but the people around you who will feed off of your light.
Fill your mind with appreciation, allowing your strongest thoughts to be full of the biggest blessings in your life.
“This is the day that the Lord has made. I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!”
HLLF –
