You Want Me To Rejoice When?!?


"Rejoice always." I Thessalonians 5:16

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4:

"I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice'." C.S. Lewis

Perhaps you haven't really thought of rejoicing as something you were commanded by God to do, but there it is. Alongside the major, well known calls in Scripture comes a rather unexpected one. God wants us rejoicing all the time.

Life doesn't really limit itself to joyful experiences though. So if rejoicing is a command that tells us a few things about it.

Rejoicing is an act of obedience.

Ultimately we rejoice because we're the children of God. His Word is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105), and His Word calls us to rejoice. In James we even read to "count it all joy when (we) fall into various trials." We can obey God in this when we have a right perspective on earthly things, and remind ourselves we were created for eternity. 

Rejoicing isn't based on circumstance.

Bad circumstances don't really call for rejoicing.  Yet, the call to do so remains. Rejoicing has a lot more to do with what Christ has already done, and my relationship with Him, than it does with what's going on around me. Everything on earth is temporary. Eternity is forever, and God has prepared it for us. That's reason to rejoice. Jesus told his disciple to rejoice because their names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rejoicing flows from an eternal perspective.

Rejoicing can't be based on how I feel.

I don't always feel like rejoicing. Some days I just feel sort of, blah. Other times I'm sorrowful over things that occur where sorrow is clearly the appropriate emotional response. This must also mean that rejoicing doesn't always require dancing and singing. It can involve outward expression, but is also an attitude toward God that can flow from our hearts. Just as love is always there even when I'm not specifically expressing it, rejoicing goes on within as we never forget all that God has done for us.

Let's keep a right perspective on things today, and rejoice. God has done great things for us, he isn't finished yet, and all of eternity awaits.

Following the Son,

James A Williams

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