This Day in History: 0000-05-31

May 31 – Zephaniah 3:17

For the Lord your God is living among you.  He is a mighty Savior.  He will take delight in you with gladness.  With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Are you getting tired of hearing me say it yet?  We are His dearly loved daughters and sons!!!!  I believe this verse is just about perfect to show us exactly what that means.

The Lord our God is living among us! Not only that, He’s living IN us!  When this verse was written, Jesus had not yet come to earth.  He hadn’t yet defeated sin and death.  He hadn’t ascended back to the Father and sent His followers the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  At this point in history, the Lord simply lived among His people, but now… now, He lives IN us!

He is indeed, a mighty Savior!

He sacrificed everything to rescue us from our miserable, hopeless state – enslaved to sin and headed for eternal death!  Can we ever thank Him enough for that precious gift?  Will we ever understand exactly how profound that salvation was?  Who would ever give his own life to save a bunch of sinners?  But God demonstrated His great love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This verse says He takes delight in us with gladness! I don’t know about you, but I long for the approval of the people who matter to me.  I want so badly to be delighted in!  How often do we realize who we are in our Father’s eyes?   The God of the universe delights in us!  Little, insignificant us!  What a joy to know that our very existence brings him joy! I am reminded of the way my heart has swelled (and still often does) with joy and pride as I’ve watched my children through the years.  It nearly bursts my heart with pleasure to know that God looks at us that same way!

His love is so big, so all-encompassing that when we really understand it we’ll have nothing in this world to fear.  How can we be afraid when the One who created everything that we see holds us secure in His tender care?  What peace there is in being His!

My friends, I will say it again, and again! We are His dearly loved daughters and sons; and He rejoices over us with joyful songs!  Let the knowledge of His love penetrate your soul today and fill you with confidence as you truly understand who you are!