Rejoice, dear friends, rejoice! For Christ is on His way. Prepare the path, make it smooth and flat. Rejoice again, I say! Rejoice, dear ones, rejoice! Put cares and fears away. Make your kindness known to one and all. Rejoice with me today! Rejoice for Christ is near! At His feet we soon will fall. His love and peace shall guard our hearts. Rejoice, give thanks, ye all! Based on Luke 3:4-5, Philippians 4:4-7
God has done so much for us. We can ask ourselves if we truly give thanks each and every day for all that God has given us. Like the leper in today’s Gospel reading who returned to give thanks to God for his healing, the first step of gratitude is simply to notice how God cares for us. Each of us has so much to be thankful for. We’ve received small, everyday gifts and large,…
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I shall say it again: rejoice!” (Phil 4:4). Over and over, Scripture exhorts us to rejoice in our Lord. The Psalms, especially, are full of calls to worship God, praise His holy name, and sing of His glory: “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy” (Ps 66: 1). Rejoicing is a joyful cry of the heart. When we worship—especially when we sing from our hearts at…