This Day Is Made by the LORD
I have been sitting with this verse lately, and I want to be honest with you about what that has looked like. As you know, our house burned. We are in the middle of insurance waiting, that strange suspended place where everything is uncertain and nothing moves fast enough. We are living with dear friends, people so kind and so generous that I do not have words for my gratitude. And still, it is hard. My body is carrying the effects of the stress. I feel out of control of so many things.
So when I read that this is the day the LORD has made, I want you to hear me clearly: I am not pretending the suffering is not real. It is real. It is very real.
But here is what I am learning. The joy the psalmist speaks of is not the same thing as pretending everything is fine. It is not a denial of pain. It is a command, and it is one I can give to my own soul. I can say to myself, the way David did, "Why are you in despair, O my soul?" (Psalm 42:11, 43:5), and I can choose. I cannot control the insurance company. I cannot control the timeline. I cannot control what my body is doing under the weight of it all. But I can control how I approach each day. Not in stress. Not in fear. In faith. In hope.
Because this day, today, this hard and uncertain and exhausting day, is still a day the LORD made. And He made it for me, and for you, before the sun came up. So I will rejoice in it. Not because my circumstances are good, but because my God is. And He has been good to me in the middle of my hardest days. And I am confident that He will be good to me in the future as well!
Reflection Questions:
What circumstances in your life right now feel outside of your control, and what would it look like to place them in God’s hands today?
Are you allowing your current circumstances to determine your joy, or are you choosing to remember who God is in the middle of them?
When fear, stress, or discouragement begins to take over, what truth from Scripture can you speak to your own soul?
Where have you already seen God’s goodness and faithfulness during hard seasons, and how can remembering those moments give you hope for what is ahead?
