Are you feeling tonight like your Christian walk is being pulled down by the cares of the world? Have you lost your first-love enthusiasm for the Lord? Have you cried out: "Please, Father, restore the joy of my salvation!" but the heavens seem like brass?

Remember the childlike expectancy when you were born again and became a newborn babe in Christ? Remember how little you felt when you first saw His greatness? That was a time of unspeakable joy. Now, the enemy would rob you of that joy, but don't lose heart. You can recapture it!

Take yourself back to when you first accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior...recall how totally you surrendered yourself into His loving care. Release all your fears, concerns, and anxieties into His arms and be refreshed by the simplicity that is only attained by letting Him take your every care.

The Word tells us that it is God's will for you to live with joy in your heart. Romans 14:17 describes the presence of joy in our Christian walk like this: "For the kingdom of God is not food and drink; but righteousness and peace and JOY in the Holy Spirit."

Now, receive the grace of God which is so freely given, and with it a release from the heaviness that has kept you from the peace and joy which is your inheritance as a child of God.

Dear Father, accept a fresh commitment of my life to You. I receive the Lordship of Jesus as if realizing it for the first time. Let me see the magnificent splendor of Your daily grace and mercy in a new way. Thank you for restoring the joy of my salvation. May it be a mighty testimony to Your glory. In Jesus' Name, Amen.