Father,
You have given to us so many gifts. Your kindness has overflowed, and we are blessed.
We thank You, Father, for Your gift of joy. There isn't a moment in our lives when we can't rejoice. Oh, there will be plenty of times when we will be sad. Happiness will come and go. But to rejoice, we can always do that. And we can do that because of You.
You are the God who is always near. You are never so busy somewhere else that we are left all alone. Impossible! You are Immanuel, God with us, our loving Father. Always. And in that, all by itself, we can rejoice.
But there is more. We rejoice because Jesus is Lord. And He is in the process of making that claim good everywhere. He is right now conquering His enemies. And the day will come when every person - from Adam to whoever the last person will be - every person will bow to Him confessing that He is Lord. And we are a part of that. We are His means of conquering. And we will win this war. In that we always can rejoice. The joy in Jesus as conquering Lord is our strength.
The day will come when all the battles will be over. Jesus will return. And then we will experience life in a way that is impossible to imagine here. And the heart of that will be that we will be with You, face to face, enjoying the pleasures of Your presence in a new heavens and a new earth. We can't wait!
But we're not there yet. There is more fighting to be done. We still have to deal with the world, the flesh and the devil. And Father, there are times when it gets really hard. In those moments, remind us that we can still rejoice. We may have to do that through tears, but we can still rejoice. Jesus is Lord. And He will conquer. And all that we have had to deal with as His Church - all of it will be rewarded. We thank You that our joy leads to hope, the certainty that, at the right time, You will keep Your promises. This war will end. We will win. And that's one thing that keeps us going, as we pray this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
You have given to us so many gifts. Your kindness has overflowed, and we are blessed.
We thank You, Father, for Your gift of joy. There isn't a moment in our lives when we can't rejoice. Oh, there will be plenty of times when we will be sad. Happiness will come and go. But to rejoice, we can always do that. And we can do that because of You.
You are the God who is always near. You are never so busy somewhere else that we are left all alone. Impossible! You are Immanuel, God with us, our loving Father. Always. And in that, all by itself, we can rejoice.
But there is more. We rejoice because Jesus is Lord. And He is in the process of making that claim good everywhere. He is right now conquering His enemies. And the day will come when every person - from Adam to whoever the last person will be - every person will bow to Him confessing that He is Lord. And we are a part of that. We are His means of conquering. And we will win this war. In that we always can rejoice. The joy in Jesus as conquering Lord is our strength.
The day will come when all the battles will be over. Jesus will return. And then we will experience life in a way that is impossible to imagine here. And the heart of that will be that we will be with You, face to face, enjoying the pleasures of Your presence in a new heavens and a new earth. We can't wait!
But we're not there yet. There is more fighting to be done. We still have to deal with the world, the flesh and the devil. And Father, there are times when it gets really hard. In those moments, remind us that we can still rejoice. We may have to do that through tears, but we can still rejoice. Jesus is Lord. And He will conquer. And all that we have had to deal with as His Church - all of it will be rewarded. We thank You that our joy leads to hope, the certainty that, at the right time, You will keep Your promises. This war will end. We will win. And that's one thing that keeps us going, as we pray this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
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