“The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.” These words of the Psalmist invite us to reflect on our attitude toward life and toward God.
When was the last time that you reflected on the good things that God has done for you? Unfortunately, it is only natural for us as human beings to focus on what we do not have and so fail to appreciate what we, in fact, do have. The most precious gift that God has given us is the gift of life. Even if your life is hard right now, even if every day is a genuine struggle for you because of illness, age, or financial pressures, there is still reason to be grateful for the gift of life. Think of what gives you pleasure even though your life is hard. You wouldn’t have those simple pleasures if you didn’t have the gift of life! And think of how the gift of life enables you to be an ambassador of God to our world – through a call or visit to a lonely friend, through family gatherings in which you share love and friendship, through your prayers for others. God has done great things for us! God does great things for us! God will do great things for us! Let these three simple statements be our daily inspiration to savor the goodness of God.
We are filled with joy. St. Paul admonishes us: Rejoice always! I say rejoice! This is not a call for us to be naively and simplistically happy. It is rather a call to have a living relationship with God in which we experience deep within our hearts God’s personal love for us and God’s powerful presence with us in every moment of our lives. Our appreciation of God’s love for us, and of God’s presence with us, should fill us with joy. And that joy should be evident not only when times are good, but especially when times are bad. In those times, we are filled with joy because we know that the love of God will sustain because the love of God can never fail us.
May all of us today etch the words of the Psalmist on our hearts and let them be the first words that slip from our lips every morning: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy!”