Thoughts for another day

April  15, 2014.

Today's verse:  Pss. 122:1, 2. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.  (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

What a wonderful thing it is to go into the Presence of the Lord God Almighty.  It’s as if all loads have fallen down our backs and in that light state, we go unto Him who is our God and who leads us into the peaceful state of being with Him.   David must have felt the sheer sense of joy as he entered the gates of Jerusalem and stood before the house of God.

Imagine the sheer joy in the heart of Jesus too as He entered Jerusalem on that day, riding meekly on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy about Him in Zec. 9:9.  When He saw the crowds waving palm branches and shouting at Him, Hosanna to the Son of David!  But He knew what was to happen shortly from then and He would have taken it all rather stoically.  Today, as we remember this event that happened many, many years ago, we also recall the humiliation and pain Jesus bore upon Himself, even as the very people who sang with joy at His entry into Jerusalem, now turned upon Him and derided Him and killed Him.

I pray to God that He never take away the gladness of my heart which He has put in me and even before that His Spirit within me.  For the gladness of heart and the joy of standing before Him, must also remind me that there may come a time when it’s time to lay down my life for His cause.   While joy is what the Lord wants us to have, there’re situations when that very joy which God gives us can turn to pain and it’s in our accepting the pain that we can reach a new level of relationship with Christ Jesus, our Lord.