What is your strategy for facing this New Year?  How about starting this first week with a promise a day to get you going?  Today our verse is Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst,  a mighty one who will save;  he will rejoice over you with gladness;  he will quiet you by his love;  he will exult over you with loud singing. ”   I love this verse as tells us plainly-HE SAVES, He rejoices over me, He will calm me with His love and He will sing over me!

What wonderful promises to encourage and keep us going when things get hard!   Have you ever thought about God rejoicing and singing over you?  What have you done for Him that He would be rejoicing about?  God specifically tells us to proclaim the gospel, good news, about Jesus so others can know His love and redemption.  He calls us to serve and love others in His name-having the motivating factor in that love coming from God.  In John 14:23 “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  Obedience also causes the Lord to rejoice. 

 What about calming you with His love?  Has that ever happened to you?  I like to think of this as calming my spirit as I struggle with a difficult situation, bringing peace in the midst of chaos, bringing hope when I’m discouraged.  The Holy Spirit can touch us personally as He dwells within or He may send someone else with a word of encouragement or a kind deed.  God promises in this verse that Jesus is with us and that He will save us.  Jesus came to save- let Him save you.  Accepting His love and redemption into our lives is a one time event but then He continues to live within us and save us to a greater extent with each day.  The fancy word for this is sanctification, the growing and developing in Christ.  Let Him work within you each day and mold and shape you into who He wants you to be.

Be encouraged this 2nd day of 2018, God SAVES, He will comfort you with His love and will rejoice over you with singing.

Linda