Devotions this week are based on Week 2 of “He Shall Be Called: Mighty God” (CLICK HERE)
Isaiah 9:3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.
When a team wins a championship or a farmer brings in a bumper crop, it is a natural reason to rejoice…especially if the championship is the first one in many years or ever or the crops of the previous years have been small or non existent.
The opposite is true too. When you work hard and there is no reward, it can be a joy killer. A team that has worked hard and has only a few wins for the season…it’s hard to end the season with a lot of rejoicing (except maybe just happy the season is over!). For a farmer that works hard to plant seed, keep the weeds out, fertilize and more only to have a devastating hailstorm ruin the crops, it’s hard to end that farming year with a lot of joy inside.
We probably have a mix of these experiences in our life. But for sure, the rejoicing is much more pleasant emotion than the disappointment of loss.
Is this true for your walk of faith?
I remember a contact we knew in Minnesota who had gone through a lot of personal and relationship challenges. We ran into each other in the neighborhood and as he was sharing the latest chapters of the saga said, “God owes me.” He was discouraged, disappointed and down right angry with God. He felt God owed him some favor.
In ministry, long days of work with little change in attendance or new contacts continuing to come can be discouraging. It’s easy to rejoice when many come to an event…it’s less easy when no one comes to worship.
In life, we can get discouraged at God for not healing our illness, or giving us a promotion, or restoring a broken relationship. We too can feel like we are owed better. We can feel like it may not be worth it to follow Christ.
But then we remember, a) our joy is not based on outward success, but inward status, and b) our mighty God is at work and when he works, there will always be a reward…we just may have to wait for it.
Jesus said this in Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Every year a farmer labors trusting the harvest will come. Every day the Christian can labor for the Lord, because he or she knows the Lord Almighty has secured the greatest reward ever: heaven. Jesus promised it. It may not be easy on this earth, but our reward will be in heaven. There we will have eternal reasons to rejoice…always!
Apply: What are you in the middle of that seems discouraging and like God will never see or care? What changes when you remember Jesus’ words that a reward is coming…in heaven?
Prayer: Jesus thank you for being our mighty God who is always working with your power to bring to us greatest blessings…even if we have to wait until heaven to experience it! AMEN