Serve The Lord With Gladness

 

Psalm 100:2
Serve The LORD with gladness, come before His presence with singing.

1 Thessalonians 5:16
Rejoice evermore.
Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in The Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

    We serve The Lord with gladness of heart, because we know where we've been and we know where we're going. So we can tolerate any rough patches we come across in life.
    Whether these rough patches happen to us by the people in our lives, or whether we inadvertently place ourselves there. Deaths, divorce, broken promises, estranged family members: these are rough patches. Having suffered through all of these, know that I am not minimizing the trauma when I say that the pain they inflicted were all temporary.
    They are trials and tribulations put upon us by others. It is our job as Christians, if we want to truly be Christ-followers, to forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive each and every one. We have been forgiven much: surely we can forgive much. We have Christ living in, changing us from unforgiving people into a people who forgive everything that the ones being forgiven may turn to Christ, also.
    Matthew 6:14,15
14. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.
    Mark 11:25
"And when you stand to pray, if you hold anything against another, forgive it, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses as well.”
    Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
    Forgiveness is not weakness. Mercy is not weakness. Compassion is not weakness. Forgiveness, Mercy, and Compassion are all signs of the strength of Christ Jesus within us.
    So, we rejoice. We serve our Lord and Savior with gladness, and only then can we come before His presence with singing, only then can we "enter His courts with praise."

AGAIN I SAY REJOICE - Israel Houghton