“This is the day the Lord has made. Let’s rejoice and be glad today!” (Psalm 118:24 GWT)

I will rejoice and be glad today.

 

I am currently saying these words to myself—seeking the good in a tough situation. Our lives are unsettled right now as we await God’s guidance for a new phase of our lives. I have shed some tears over the past, I have said my good-byes to a home in which we invested ourselves and grew our family, and I have faced my own personal “funk” as I sat down to feel sorry for myself that God has put us in a holding pattern.

 

I am eager to move on. I am eager to see what God will do. I am eager to settle in the new place with a new lease on our lives in the years to come.

 

Yet God keeps us here. Why? What is he waiting for? Ah . . . but I know better than to ask that question. I know better than to complain. I know better than to demand that God answer me. I know, from painful experience, that God will work in his time in his way. Far from being a cliché, it is a fact of our lives with him.

 

So what is left for me to do in this time of waiting?

 

Trust his promises.

 

Walk with him.

 

Talk with him.

 

Listen to him.

 

And, oh yeah, rejoice.

 

I am not called to sit and wait to be happy or content when things get better, when life is settled, when the questions are answered. I am called to rejoice today.

 

I can rejoice because I can trust his promises, I can walk with him, I can talk with him, I can listen to him. And I can rejoice because I know that our future is safely in his hands.

 

Are you in a holding pattern today? Waiting for God’s answer to the cries of your heart? It may seem counterintuitive but I would encourage you to trust, walk, talk, listen, and …

 

rejoice.