Celebration!

There are so many reasons to celebrate and be grateful. I love the holiday we’ve just celebrated formally known as Thanksgiving. I literally try to start each day by giving thanks to the Lord for the blessings in my life and more importantly, His Presence with me.  With His Presence in me, I can navigate the most difficult situations.  I do also love to celebrate special days. Every person alive has only one physical birthday, but we spend the rest of our days celebrating the day we were born.  I think it would be good to celebrate my “Born Again” date – the day I surrendered my life to the Lord.

Celebrations help us remember special dates. I remember the day my son was told that he was cancer free. I remember the dates when my grandchildren were born. These are celebratory for sure.

The Jewish people had much to celebrate because instead of genocide by the Persians who hated them, they were given permission to fight back. They organized themselves and they fought back and were saved from a massacre.  The first day went so well, they asked the king for a second day and he gave them a second day to stamp out those who wanted to destroy the Jews.  They decided to never forget these two days. Mordecai declared a two-day celebration that could be passed on from generation to generation. Check this out….

So because of Mordecai’s letter and because of what they had experienced,²⁷ the Jews throughout the realm agreed to inaugurate this tradition and to pass it on to their descendants and to all who became Jews. They declared they would never fail to celebrate these two prescribed days at the appointed time each year. ²⁸ These days would be remembered and kept from generation to generation and celebrated by every family throughout the provinces and cities of the empire. This Festival of Purim would never cease to be celebrated among the Jews, nor would the memory of what happened ever die out among their descendants. (Esther 9:26b-28 NLT)

I love these types of celebrations because I’m reminded of how blessed I am. I am thankful that the Lord walks with me. I’m thankful that the Lord goes before me. I’m thankful that the Lord walks beside me.  I should add a few days to my calendar each year to celebrate certain dates that the Lord did something amazing in my life.  The celebrations should be about the blessings from the Lord and not something we’ve done. My life features so much that He has done in me and through me. I can celebrate today and everyday His Presence and His Blessing over me.

Pressing On!

Dwayne