Daily Prayer - Joy to the World!

Good Thursday morning, my friends.

 

How would you feel to have the God who created the universe and everything in it rejoicing over YOU with gladness and exulting over YOU with singing? 

"Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the LORD." Zephaniah 3:14-20

 

The people of Israel are in the midst of one of the most tragic moments of their history—their land is being conquered by outsiders, the city of Jerusalem is destroyed, they are refugees without a home. But Zephaniah has the eyes of a prophet. Prophets look beyond the harsh realities of the present and proclaim that God is still there, still alive "in our midst," even in times of suffering. He can see what others do not always see because he is an expert student of God's character of faithfulness. So, Zephaniah trains his eyes on the horizon looking toward the fulfillment of God's promises.

 

In Advent we are called to be prophets too—to train our eyes on the horizon, to be watchful for signs of God "in our midst." As Advent prophets, we sharpen our eyesight through the celebration of God's acts of steadfast love and mercy. We put up nativity scenes, we retell stories of angels announcing the birth of a savior and we place that guiding star atop our trees to remind us that we have more evidence of God's faithfulness than even the prophet Zephaniah did. Jesus Christ is the ultimate evidence that our God is "in our midst" or, as we like to say this time of year, "Emmanuel" which means "God with us." So, like Zephaniah, we call on one another to sing, to rejoice in the anticipation that God is always with us in Jesus Christ and that God's justice and mercy will ultimately be victorious.

 

http://www.secondchurch.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=92595

 

Rejoice.  Be joyous.  God is in our midst.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,
Bruce

 

 

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

 

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

 

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

 

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

 

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)