A songwriter writing from the heart begins with his attitude and begins to bring the outpouring of words of praise to the tablet to the vocal expression of those words. The expression of praise is not the song being sung in mindless reparation, but coming from the heart of joy of what God has done for you and others. Thanksgiving of the gift of salvation, mercy and grace from God.

One is to serve the Lord with gladness the Psalmist declares and yet one might like to ask the Psalmist what about that morning when all is in total chaos. The keys get left in the house going to the car for work. The locksmith takes hour getting there. In to much of a hurry that one fails to remember the locksmith is parked behind your car and one backs right into it causing another hour delay of a cop getting there. The boss is angry because you were suppose to open at 7 and it now 10:30. Yet one is suppose to serve the Lord with gladness. The school calls and one’s child is sick, and one has to pick her/ him up in the middle of one‘s shift they were late for. Yet one is suppose to be serving the Lord with gladness. Now can this day get any worse. You get back to work after dropping your child at the babysitter to only find you do not have a job. You are suppose to serve the Lord with gladness. One goes to the local coffee shop to read the paper and get a coffee and a Danish. While sitting at a table the waitress comes to refresh your drink, only to spill the pot on you. Yet one is to praise the Lord. One gets in the car with the dent that one can not fix because one lost their job and find a parking ticket on the windshield. The job interview one secured with a local company is now going to see a person with coffee spilled down the front of a good work outfit because one has to go pay for a ticket across town, instead of going home to change. The potential boss looks at the potential worker and seeing the unkempt outfit of coffee stains and ask what did you do pour it on your last boss. One wants to complain instead has to smile and tell the potential boss how much you really like to work there, hoping it is a transition and not out of work with no pay. One goes home forgetting the babysitters house with the sick child, only to realize it at six o’clock. The child is now running a high grad temp and now one has to decide to go to the doc or see if over counter meds will bring the fever down. At eight the fever is broke with the over counter medicine and the potential boss calls and ask when can you start. The shift of change from an evil day to a day of hope. Yet all this time one is suppose to serve the Lord with gladness.

Is humanity okay on that day not to feel like serving God. The truth of the matter to learn to serve God despite the obstacles takes years of practice for most. Those days when all is not right in the world, only is a sign of humanity. Yet to be human with human emotion one can not always be in the mindset of praise to God. Our human frailty is not perfection of praise. Our hope and goaled needs to be I can serve the Lord with gladness despite lifes woes. No it not realistic, but some are able to do it better then others. It is seeing a upside down egg as sunny side up. It seeing a glass half full instead of half empty. It saying praise the Lord it could have been worse. It is knowing all things work together that love the Lord. It is knowing in one’s heart that God works through all circumstances in one’s life. Yet no one serves the Lord with perfect joy. Not because their heart desire is not there, it the human emotion of the human struggle.

When I say praise the Lord in all things, do not think I always do what I should, but I know that each day turned over to God is a blessing. That day of a major headache can become a blessing. That new job might be better pay, the dent in the car the insurance did pay with accident forgiveness. The stain in the outfit comes out without any trouble. Yet the type of day is scarred, by the dent, and the burn from the coffee. Our testimony to others can either be scarred by a dent and burns in life or it can shine even when it seems impossible to say praise the Lord.

Come into God’s presence with thanksgiving even when the road of humanity says otherwise. Come into God’s presence with joy and shouting. The sounds of children with discovery sharing the news with one’s parents. God’s presence coming with sharing the joy of God’s blessings in one’s life. The mindset of praise of seeing God for who He truly is in one’s life. God taking you through the bad day only to bring you to a day of joy.

Dear Heavenly Father help us to worship both in the good times and bad times, serving you with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study for Devotion: