Eat and Rejoice

Deuteronomy 7 says, There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

Here we are told to rejoice with our families by eating!  I think our family has this routine down well.  We celebrate each member of our extended family on their birthday, with a dinner of their choice wherever they’d like to go.  We gather together to bless that person and celebrate his/her life.

Here we are told to rejoice in “everything” we’ve put our hand to.

Why?

Because the Lord has blessed us.

Having new babies?  Rejoice.

Got a new job? Rejoice.

New car in the driveway? Rejoice

Failed a test?  Rejoice (because you’ll pass the next time)

Worried over a diagnosis?  Rejoice (because He is your healer and deliverer)

We are to rejoice in everything, because the Lord is with us.  Yes, we are sad and despondent at times, because we’re human and life is difficult.  But when we choose to find a reason to rejoice, the healing process has already began because we are not defeated.