Andy Stoddard ~ Why We Rejoice
One of the great blessings in life is to celebrate the ways that God works and moves. Sometimes, in our bid to stay humble, we can forget to give testimony to what God has done. Now, we do want to be careful, making sure that God gets the glory for whatever good happens in life, but we need to stop and realize what God has done.
It says in Revelation 12:11 that the devil is defeated by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
In our lives, we should, as often as we can, stop and testify and thank God for what he has done and is doing.
So today in our text, something surprising happens. Listen to what we see in Luke 10: 17-20:
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
But don’t rejoice because of that. Rejoice because your name is written in heaven.
We don’t rejoice today because of what we’ve done. Or what God has done through us. We don’t rejoice because of any of these things.
We rejoice because we are his.
We rejoice because he has given us life, life now, and life for all eternity.
We rejoice because we know the source of our life and our hope.
We rejoice because God has made us his very own.
Our identity is not found in what we do. Our identity is found in who we are. We are his. That’s where our joy comes from.
May we never forget that!
Read more from Andy Stoddard at www.revandy.org.