Isaiah 61:10 I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Verse 3 has been memorably arranged to music, and that arrangement agrees perfectly with this verse. The thrust of that is that God has done all these things for us, but it is our choice to accept and apply them. There are few things the devil rejoices in more than when we indulge in pity parties. When we allow ourselves to be distracted by temporal things from the eternal glories God has prepared for us, no one benefits. Even if your life is a bed of roses, roses have thorns! Jesus said it very clearly: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) It is frankly difficult to rejoice under a whole host of circumstances we are likely to experience in this world, but we can still make the choice to rejoice. This statement by Isaiah should be ours, because the Lord has indeed clothed us with salvation and righteousness. Those aren’t our own, but are those of the Son of God, who loved us so much as to die for us. (1 Corinthians 1:30, 2 Corinthians 5:21) When we have our focus on that, everything in this life fades into insignificance.

This is a lesson I’m still learning! Just as I was typing this, the computer suddenly decided not to hyphenate anything in the first paragraph, when it had been beautifully hyphenated up to that point. That greatly grates on my personality, but even I can see that it has no real ultimate significance. It didn’t change the words, just how they appeared on the page. It’s things like that that I allow to steal my joy, and it’s stupid! As a pastor, I seek to lead the flock in keeping their focus on Christ, (Hebrews 12:2) but I’ve got to lead the way by doing so myself. I do look forward to heaven, where all the junk will be behind us, but I’m not to be “so heavenly minded as to be no earthly good.” Life happens, as Jesus said it would, but I can and should choose to rejoice in my Lord and Savior whatever is going on.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all You enabled me to get done yesterday. Today’s tasks are different, but no less important. Help me do each thing in turn, resting, relaxing, and rejoicing in You, just as You have told me to do, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!