Psalm 118 is very clear in instructing us how we should respond to this declaration.
'WE SHOULD REJOICE & BE GLAD IN IT!'
I know I fall short and have too many moments where I react instead of respond. I don't have my quick temper wrapped up with a pretty bow and packed away and I don't seem to continually walk around rejoicing and being glad, either.
However, I consider myself a happy person in general.
Do I 'lose' it sometimes?
Yes I do, but those times are getting further apart as I allow more of God's joy to fill my heart.
I am finding out that the ones whom I think are hindering me from wearing my own garment of praise, are the very ones He uses. He makes sure they teach me how to work out a harmonious relationship, be it in laws, at work, or in the check out at the store.
It isn't a crime or a sin to get angry. Even Jesus lost His temper when He entered the temple and knocked over the tables.
We are told it is ok to be angry, but sin not.
And He asks us not to let the sun go down on our wrath. He tells us that for our own good. It isn't healthy. We toss and turn all night. Our stomachs become upset and we get up just as exhausted as the previous night.
Harboring and dragging resentments along is draining and it robs us of the joy that a new day brings.
It is a heavy weight stuck in the basket that we haul along wherever we go.
Sadly, I have witnessed too often, there aren't any BLESSINGS in returning wrath for wrath, but there is when I know I have treated another as I wish to be treated.
Every choice we make affects someone or something in this day that the Lord has made.
Therefore I know it is better to do it His way.
It doesn't always work, that is true, but when it does, there is a BLESSING we give to the Lord.
And our BLESSING in return, is the sense of peace in our heart.
Tomorrow will be another day that the Lord will make for new opportunities of BLESSINGS.
Let's be there, ready to receive.
- Excerpt from "101 Blessings" by Marlane Lillian Mazur.
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