"Restore to Me the JOY of Your Salvation"

            Have you had your Joy Juice today?  Drink in the JOY of the Lord…and then repeat.

 JOY and RE-JOICE!

            When we “rejoice”, we are to celebrate; and to celebrate means to express joy and cheer and gladness…!

            Do you ever feel as though your joy needs to be renewed?  Maybe somewhere along the way you’ve lost some of your joy?  Years ago I can remember buying “retreads”…old tires which had been refurbished with a new layer of “tread” over the top. They looked like new tires! Retreads extended the life of the old tire by giving it a “second chance”, so to speak.  The tire was useful again.

            I think this analogy is a good one when we think of how our joy sometimes runs thin.  We may even have a “blow out” from time to time.  How can we “renew or retread” our joy?  King David made a huge mistake with Bathsheba. He had a hole of sadness and regret in his heart.  He knew he had sinned against God. So he cried out to the Lord in Psalms 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.”

            Did God hear his cry?  Was He forgiven? Was his joy in relationship with God restored?  YES!  God answered his prayer because of his genuine, heartfelt remorse and repentance.  

            Do you have that same joy, excitement in the Lord, peace that you had when you first became a Christian? If not….cry out to the Lord:  “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.”

            Be renewed and refreshed, “retreaded” with the joy of the Lord!  “REJOICE in the Lord, always; and again I say REJOICE!”  Philippians 4: