Life has been ramping up in extra activity since Christmas and it’s continuing on through 2025. I am happy to announce we have a grandbaby due in April and my daughter just got engaged this past weekend with an expectation to marry this year as well.
It’s all exciting, but I know I will need to say no more to have room to say yes to others. In all this, temptations can lurk within my heart to drop what is most life-giving: time with Christ and cultivating a personal relationship with Him. I don’t like when I get to this point of such a busy life that I feel I must meet whatever appears urgent over that. I do this with all relationships, including my husband and family. I know what I would rather do, but I feel that pressure to cram everything I can into every space of life. This scares me! I don’t want my heart to grow cold. And I know from many past experiences that making Christ a top priority puts order to life. When I put Him first, I notice that other things naturally fall into place as they should. Slowly and steadily, my tasks are completed at the right time. If I don’t make Christ a priority? I lose joy.
Around 4 o’clock this morning, the Holy Spirit reminded me to “set my mind on things above, not on earthly things” and to “rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice!” I struggled in this area, and the Lord gently reminded me why.
I don’t believe in coincidence when I also read past Facebook memories for the day and came across something I wrote eleven years ago:
If we let the business of daily life get in the way of our relationship with Christ, we have missed the whole point of living. Let us fill our days with Him. Let us acknowledge Him all day long. Let us not get distracted by things, circumstances, people, or even ministries. Let us be open and willing for the Holy Spirit to come upon us, allowing Christ to be on the throne of our hearts. Then will Christ’s love overflow to others. Then, we will experience the joy, excitement, fervor, zeal, and desire!
I choose then to focus on rejoicing in the Lord. Philippians 4:4 says in the AMP version says:
Rejoice in the Lord always [delight; take pleasure in Him]l again I will say, rejoice! [Psalm 37:4]
I choose to take pleasure in my Lord once more. Tomorrow I hope to dig a little further into practical solutions for finding this great happiness once more. Will you choose to rejoice in the Lord this year as well?