The Will to Rejoice

Have you ever had one of those days when you did not want to do anything, and you had to will yourself to do so?  Why then do we passively neglect the will to rejoice?

Psalms 118:24 says, “This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  (KJV)

In this verse, the definition of will is the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention

I don’t know if it’s by force of habit, but we often find ourselves saying when something disappoints us, and we react out of character, “Well, I couldn’t help it, that just made me so angry!”  And that one instance remains with us for the rest of the day and sometimes night.  Sneaking into our every thought and action -robbing us of our joy.  We indeed can help it!  It is our choice of how we decide to respond to a situation or obstacle.

I understand we are not perfect, mistakes happen, and that’s how we learn.  But let us not allow ourselves a pass for not doing the right thing, once we realize it is wrong.

For years I used the excuse of how others treated me to justify my actions.  I held onto past learned negative behaviors and adopted an attitude of “woe is me” until I found joy was an option.  Every day with Gods help, I strive towards conquering the negative impression of myself that was engraved into my mind, heart, and soul into a positive experience.  And the more positive work I put in, the more the negative drowns out.

God requires us to exhibit love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, known as the fruit of the Spirit in the book of Galatians 5:22-23.  He wants us to have the best life experience we can every day, not just sometimes.  So when life gets rough, don’t take whatever it has to throw at you – will yourself to rejoice.