February 18

“We are made to find our joy in the Lord, and we cannot find rest short of it.  All God’s dealings with us, therefore, are shaped to this end; and he is often obliged to deprive us of all joy in everything else in order to force us to find our joy only in him.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets of the Christian Life, 2/18

This is one of those quotes I need to put on my bathroom mirror so that I will be sure to see it every day.  Hannah points out that it is the Promiser, not the promises, that we are to rejoice in.  How quickly we have gratitude for the gift and then lose sight of the giver.  I think of all the times I had to threaten my children to get them to write a thank-you note. They were always excited to receive the gift, but their enthusiasm did not extend to expressing it to the giver.  I’m sitting here with a better understanding of thank-you notes.  I write thank-you notes because they let the giver know the gift was received and was appreciated.  When I receive thank-you notes I feel appreciated.  While God doesn’t need any of these assurances we need to express them.  Moreover, we need to express our gratitude to God in all things because it is in this that we will be kept from looking at His gifts as the blessing.  God promises to be in all things.  Therefore, if we’ve set our minds and hearts to be thankful for the Giver we will be able to rejoice always.

“Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”  Habakkuk 3:17,18