06/08/17 This is the Day that the Lord has Made

I meet with some friends a few times throughout the week for coffee and fellowship before we go to our respective jobs. As you probably already assumed, this happens pretty early in the morning. I like to pray as I drive to wherever we meet, and I often need to pray in a way that will correct my mindset off of wishing that I was still in bed and focus it on Him.

I have never been nor will I ever be a morning person and I was particularly tired that day. Also, I had to spend a significant amount of time turning my apartment upside down to find my wallet that I would eventually remember that I left in my car. I’m sure you’ve been there. Needless to say, my mindset wasn’t in the place it needed to be. I started my prayer with that familiar passage out of Psalm 118 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Then I started to interrogate myself, “Am I seeking my gladness from God or from other places and things?” Then my mind was flooded with all of the things that I derive my gladness from that I have placed above God.

Just in the brief time that I woke up to the time that I started that prayer the things that made me glad were: the result of a sporting event the night before, my dog, the outfit that I was wearing (I felt like I looked good), and the fact that I found my wallet. Notice something that isn’t listed? I’ll give you a hint; He created everything. It was a convicting moment. The crazy thing is that the things that I was getting my gladness from aren’t bad or evil in themselves. It’s the fact that I am looking to those things for gladness above God who is the one who clothes me with gladness (Ps 30:11).

Where do you go to find gladness? Job? Financial security? Significant other? Kids? The list could go on and on! Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying any of those things are bad. In fact, all of those things are great things and James 1:17 tells us that every good gift comes from God. What I am asking is what are you taking your supreme gladness in, the gift or the Gifter? It’s all about keeping everything in the correct perspective. John Calvin once said, “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” We take what is good and turn it into a god. Paul talks about this in Romans 1 where he says people had “…worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…”