January 22: Rejoice and Be Glad.

He Is Merciful.
Satisfy us early with Your mercy, That  we may rejoice and be glad all our days!--Psalm 90:14, NKJV

HE UNDERSTANDS OUR WEAKNESSES and our temptations; and when we come to Him with broken hearts and contrite spirits, He accepts our repentance, and promises that, as we take hold of His strength to make peace with Him, we shall make peace with Him.  Oh, what gratitude, what joy, should we feel that God is merciful!--Testimonies for the Christ, vol. 3, 239.

It should not be difficult to remember that the Lord desires you to lay your troubles and perplexities at His feet, and leave them there.  Go to Him, saying, "Lord, my burdens are too heavy for me to carry.  Wilt Thou bear them for me?"  And He will answer: "I will take them.  'With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.'  I will take your sins, and will give you peace.  Banish no longer your self-respect; for I have bought you with the price of My own blood.  You are Mine.  Your weakened will I will strengthen.  Your remorse for sin I will remove."

"I, even I, am He," the Lord declares, "that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.  Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified."  "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right."  "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."  Respond to the calls of God's mercy, and say, "I will trust in the Lord and be comforted.  I will praise the Lord; for His anger is turned away.  I will rejoice in God, who gives the victory."--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 519, 520.

January 21: Rejoice and Be Glad.

He Has Done Great Things for Us
The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.--Psalm 126:3, NIV

WHEREFORE COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,...and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

...Oh, what a relationship is this! higher and holier than any earthly tie....God adopts you into His family; you become members of the royal household, sons and daughters of the King who rules in the heavens of heavens.  Can you desire a more exalted position than is here promised?  Is not this enough?  Said the angel: "What could God do for the children of men more than He has already done?  If such love, such exalted promises are not appreciated, could He devise anything higher, anything richer and more lofty?  All that God could do has been done for the salvation of man."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 510.

The Lord desires us to appreciate the great plan of redemption, to realize our high privilege as the children of God, and to walk before Him in obedience, with grateful thanksgiving....He longs to see gratitude welling up in our hearts because our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, because we may cast all our care upon Him who cares for us.  He bids us rejoice because we are the heritage of the Lord, because the righteousness of Christ is the white robe of His saints, because we have the blessed hope of the soon coming of our Saviour.--Christ's Object Lessons, 299.

January 20: Rejoice and Be Glad.

The Lord Is Our Strength
The Lord is me strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with with my song I will praise Him.--Psalm 28:7, NKJV

THE CARE OF GOD is over the weakest of His children.  No act of cruelty or oppression toward them is unmarked by Heaven.  Over all who love and fear Him, His hand extends as a shield.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 300.

Because of the increasing power of Satan's temptations, the times in which we live are full of peril for the children of God, and we need to learn constantly of the Great Teacher, that we may take every step in surety and righteousness.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 322.

Those who walk humbly before God, distrustful of their own wisdom, will realize their danger and will know God's keeping care.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 323.

The great God, whose glory shines from the heavens, and whose divine hand upholds millions of worlds, is our Father.  We have only to love Him, trust in Him, as little children in faith and confidence, and He will accept us as His sons and daughters, and we shall be heirs to all the inexpressible glory of the eternal world.  All the meek will He guide in judgment, the meek will He teach His way.  If we will walk in obedience to His will, learn cheerfully and diligently the lessons of His providence, by and by He will say: Child, come home to the heavenly mansions I have prepared for you.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 653.

January 19: Rejoice and Be Glad.

The Joy of Knowing That God Is Our Helper
Because you are my help. I sing in the shadow of your wings.--Psalm 63:7, NIV

THE CHRISTIAN ALWAYS HAS a strong helper in the Lord.  The way of the Lord's helping we may not know; but this we do know; He will never fail those who put their trust in Him.  Could Christians realize how many times the Lord has ordered their way, that the purposes of the enemy concerning them might not be accomplished, they would not stumble along complainingly.  Their faith would be stayed on God, and no trial would have power to move them.  They would acknowledge Him as their wisdom and efficiency, and He would bring to pass that which He desires to work out through them.--Prophets and Kings, 576.

We are to be one with Christ as He is one with the Father, and the Father will love us as He loves His Son.  We may have the same help that Christ had, we may have strength for every emergency; for God will be our front guard and our rearward.  He will shut us in on every side.--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 386.

In his own strength man is strengthless; but in the might of God he may be strong to overcome evil and to help others to overcome.  Satan can never gain advantage of him who makes God his defense.--Prophets and Kings, 175.

Then let us not cast away our confidence, but have firm assurance, firmer than ever before.  "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and He will help us to the end.  1 Samuel 7:12,--Steps to Christ, 125.

                      He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
                          Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
                    I shall say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress;
                                             My God, in Him I will trust."
                                                                                          --Psalm 91:1, 2, NKJV

January 18: Rejoice and Be Glad.

Supreme Love
"If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you.  Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God."--Job 22:23-26, NIV

THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment"  (Matthew 22:37, 38).

The first four commandments allow no separation of the affections from God.  Nor is anything allowed to divide, or share, our supreme delight in Him.  Whatever divides the affections, and takes away from the soul supreme love to God, assumes the form of an idol.  Our carnal hearts would cling to our idols and seek to carry them along; but we cannot advance until we put them away, for they separate us from God.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 289.

If we would but think of God as often as we have evidence of His care for us we should keep Him ever in our thoughts and should delight to talk of Him and to praise Him.  We talk of temporal things because we have an interest in them..  We talk of our friends because we love them; our joys and our sorrows are bound up with them.  Yet we have infinitely greater reason to love God than to love our earthly friends; it should be the most natural thing in the world to make Him first in all our thoughts, to talk of His goodness and tell of His power.--Steps to Christ, 102.

January 17: Rejoice and Be Glad.

The Source of Every Blessing.
"They took strong cities and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance.  So they ate and were filled and grew fat, and delighted themselves in Your great goodness."--Nehemiah 9:25, NKJV

GOD IS THE SOURCE OF EVERY BLESSING to His creatures, and...to Him man's gratitude is due for the good gifts of His providence.

"He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things."  Acts 17:25....And it is God who gives men power to get wealth.  Deuteronomy 8:18.  As an acknowledgement that all things came from Him, the Lord directed that a portion of His bounty should be returned to Him in gifts and offerings to sustain His worship.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 525.

The first that ripened of every product of the land was consecrated to Him....

Thus the people were constantly reminded that God was the true proprietor of their fields, their flocks, and their herds; that He sent them sunshine and rain for their seedtime and harvest, and that everything they possessed was of His creation, and He had made them stewards of His goods.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 526.

In the seventh month came the Feast of Tabernacles, or of ingathering.  This feast acknowledged God's bounty in the products of the orchard, the olive grove, and the vineyard.  It was the crowning festal gathering of the year.  The land had yielded its increase, the harvests had been gathered into the granaries, the fruits, the oil, and the wine had been stored, the first fruits had been reserved, and now the people came with their tributes of thanksgiving to God, who had thus richly blessed them.

This feast was to be pre-eminently an occasion of rejoicing....The labors of the harvest being ended, and the toils of the new year not yet begun, the people were free from care, and could give themselves up to the sacred, joyous influences of the hour.--Patriarchs and Prophets, 540.

January 16: Rejoice and Be Glad.

Every Good Thing.
"Afterward you may go and celebrate because of all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.  Remember to include the Levites and the foreigners living among you in the celebration."--Deuteronomy 26:11, NLT

GOD GAVE DIRECTION to the Israelites to assemble before Him at set periods, in the place where He should choose, and observe days wherein no unnecessary work was to be done, but the time was to be devoted to a consideration of the blessings which He had bestowed upon them.  At these special seasons they were to bring gifts, freewill offerings, and thank offerings unto the Lord, according as He had blessed them.  The manservant and maidservant, the stranger, the fatherless and widow, were directed to rejoice that God had by His own wonderful power brought them from servile bondage to the enjoyment of freedom.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, 573.

Shall we not keep holy festivals unto God?  Shall we not show that we have some enthusiasm in His service?  With the grand, ennobling theme of salvation before us, shall we be as cold as statues of marble?  If men can become so excited over a match game of cricket, or a horse race, or over foolish things that bring no good to anyone, shall we be unmoved when the plan of salvation is unfolded before us?  Let the school and the church henceforth have festivals of rejoicing unto the Lord.--Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 371.

January 15: Rejoice and Be Glad.

Celebrate the Truth.
Love is patient....It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.--1 Corinthians 13:4, 6, ESV

LOVE "REJOICETH NOT IN INIQUITY, but rejoiceth in the truth."  He whose heart is imbued with love is filled with sorrow at the errors and weaknesses of others; but when truth triumphs, when the cloud that darkened the fair fame of another is removed, or when sins are confessed and wrongs corrected, he rejoices.--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 169.

The word of God--the truth--is the channel through which the Lord manifests His Spirit and power.  Obedience to the word produces fruit of the required quality--"unfeigned love of the brethren."  This love is heaven-born and leads to high motives and unselfish actions.--The Acts of the Apostles, 519.

                      Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth
                          through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren,
                            love one another fervently with a pure heart.
                                                                           --1 Peter 1:22, NKJV

                              Love isn't easily upset,
                        Love doesn't tally wrongs or celebrate injustice;
                           but truth--yes, truth--is love's delight!
                              
                                            --1 Corinthians 13:5, 6, VOICE

January 14: Rejoice and Be Glad.

The Law of God.
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being.--Romans 7:22, ESV

THE PSALMIST DECLARES of the good man: "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night."  He refers to his own experience, and exclaims: "O how I love Thy law! it is my meditation all the day."  "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in Thy word."--Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, 526.

The will of God is expressed in the precepts of His holy law, and the principles of this law are the principles of heaven.  The angels of heaven attain unto no higher knowledge than to know the will of God, and to do His will is the highest service that can engage their powers.

But in heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality.  When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of.  In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons.  There is perfect unity between them and their Creator.  Obedience is to them no drudgery.  Love for God makes their service a joy.  So in every soul wherein Christ, the hope of glory dwells, His words are re-echoed, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart."  Psalm 40:8.--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, 109.

                    But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
                  And in His law he meditates day and night.
                                                                           --Psalm 1:2, NKJV

January 13: Rejoice and Be Glad.

Your Salvation.
We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!  May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.--Psalm 20:5, NKJV

ALL HEAVEN IS INTERESTED in our salvation.  The angels of God, thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand, are commissioned to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.  They guard us against evil and press back the powers of darkness that are seeking our destruction.  Have we not reason to be thankful every moment, thankful even when there are apparent difficulties in our pathway?--Testimonies for the Christ, vol. 6, 63.

God desires that the receivers of His grace shall be witnesses to its power.  Those whose course has been most offensive to Him He freely accepts; when they repent, He imparts to them His divine Spirit, places them in the highest positions of trust, and sends them forth into the camp of the disloyal to proclaim His boundless mercy.  He would have His servants bear testimony to the fact that through His grace men may possess Christlikeness of character, and may rejoice in the assurance of His great love.--The Desire of Ages, 826.

                      May he grant your heart's desires
                      and make all your plans succeed.
                May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory  

                and raise a victory banner in the name of our God.
                    May the Lord answer all your prayers.
                                                                            --Psalm 20:4, 5, NLY