ZEPHANIAH 3:17

“‘The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will rejoice over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.’”

Children need their parents to show them praise. They need to know how proud their parents are of them. This can be done with words or deeds, but however it is done, it must be done. The absence of praise or rejoicing in a child’s life can have lifetime effects. Don’t underestimate how much your child needs this. They probably will never ask for it. Just do it.

Don’t you just love today’s verse? God, the One who made all things, the One who redeemed you from your sins, He rejoices over you. He rejoices over you with shouts of joy. Can you believe that? Shouldn’t we be doing that towards Him? Of course, we should. But He also rejoices over us. What a glorious thought!

APPLICATION

Those days when you are feeling lowly, remember this. He loves you with an everlasting love. His love is eternal. It will never end. There is nothing you can do to cause Him to stop loving you. He loved you while you were His enemy. Listen to these words from Paul in Romans 5:10-11. “10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

Did you catch that second verse? We also celebrate. So, while God is rejoicing over us with joy, we are rejoicing that we have been reconciled back to Him. We rejoice because He rejoices. He rejoices when we rejoice. Doesn’t that give you something to shout about today?

Celebrate Jesus today. He is celebrating you. He loves you so much and wants you to know that. If He were here today (and He is through His Holy Spirit), He would be telling you that to your face. Listen to the Spirit that is within you. He is telling you the same thing. “My beloved, I rejoice in you.”

I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship You, O my soul rejoice.