Day Fifty: February 19 – Today’s Tasting – Leviticus 9-11: What brings you joy (delight, happiness)? Some of the first joy mentioned in Israel resulted from the first sacrifices offered, by Moses and Aaron, at the newly anointed Tabernacle and its furnishings.
“Fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When the people saw this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground,” Leviticus 9:24
Today’s Nourishment: On these cold days, warm jackets keep us from the cold. When my joy seems to grow cold, I check my jacket. I check my thoughts. I check my attitude. I check my gratitude. I check my smiles. We hold the choice to put on the jacket of joy, to live in joy or to live in annoyance (anger).
In Isaiah 61:3, they wore joy like a garment. God granted them the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. Festivities and gladness, in Israel always flowed with oil. In times of pubic calamity or grief, oil lacked. Oil represented joy. Joy, the garment of praise, wears like a garment or a jacket. We hold the choice to wear it.
The fruit of joy comes from my relationship with Jesus and worshiping Him. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” Romans 14:17.
“Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness,” Hebrews 1:9b. We put joy on as quickly as we remove joy. Sometimes joy follows sacrifice. In my adult life, I found myself in depression from some dysfunction in my growing up years. I started offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving, in all and for all of my childhood days. Peace and joy started growing in me. When I start feeling that heaviness, I check to see if my jacket drags the ground. I pick it up and put back it on to live, that day, with joy.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope,” Romans 15:13 ESV.
How might you put on your jacket of joy?
Tomorrow’s Reading: Leviticus 12-14:32
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