“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say: Rejoice!"
This is virtually a command to rejoice, but not to just rejoice but to “rejoice in the Lord.” This doesn’t mean to just be happy when everything is going in our favor. We are reminded to “always” rejoice – “in the Lord.” I want to share with you what I think that it means to “rejoice in the Lord.” We should rejoice in the salvation that God offers us through His grace. Being saved, being made right with God through faith in Jesus, is ample reason to rejoice, even in the difficult times.Hebrews 7:24-25 reminds us of a good reason to rejoice: “But this man (Jesus), because He continues ever, has an unchangeable priest hood. 25. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost those that come to God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Do you see what this means? It means that, through Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, God is personally involved in our lives. That Jesus intercedes for us, means that He is praying for us, and leading us to a better life. We should rejoice in the hope that we have in Christ. Romans 12:12 reminds us of this hope that we have in Christ: “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation (trouble); continuing instant in prayer.” The hope that we have in Christ is not the “hope so” kind of hope that we think of today. According to Vine’s Dictionary of New Tesatment Words it means, “favourable and confident expectation.” We are secure in our relationship with Jesus Christ, for He “is our hope.” (1 Timothy 1:1b) According to Colossians 1:27, Jesus is our “hope of glory.” This doesn’t mean that we will have self glory, but that we have the eternal glory that He alone can give, that is, eternal life beginning in this life and continuing through all eternity. Rejoice in the hope that Jesus gives, and is, in our lives. We should rejoice in the peace that we have in Christ. Look at the promise given in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” We are reminded in Philippians 4:27 that through prayer we can have “the peace of God, which passes all understanding.” We should not just seek peace of mind, but we should seek the “peace of God” that we have by faith in Jesus Christ, and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is much, much more that could be written on this subject, but I think that the three that I have given here can give you a good start in “rejoicing in the Lord always.” Bro. Joe
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“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
It is difficult to decide what to write about in Romans 12:10-12. It is certainly important that we love one another with “brotherly affection.” (We could add “sisterly affection.”) We should certainly go out of our way to honor one another. Verse 11 gives advice that we all should follow, and is sorely missing in churches today: “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord." Think of the revival that we would have in our churches if we adopted each of these things. I decided to write about verse 12, because I saw virtues there that we need if we are to live at peace with God, ourselves and others, and if we want to live in victory. This verse contains what I am calling “Three Indispensable Virtues.” We are encouraged to “rejoice in hope.” The Greek word translated “hope” here is not what we call hope. We use the word as a hunch that maybe something good will happen, or maybe we will make it through. The word as used here means that we have a solid hope in Christ, no matter what is going on around us. Our situation today certainly doesn’t look very hopeful for us. We see all kinds of moral values being devalued and paganism seems to be creeping into our country – if it is not already pagan. I remind you that this is the kind of society that Paul lived in. Rome was perhaps the most pagan of all cities. But Paul had the audacity to rejoice in hope and to tell us to do the same. Our hope is not in the world situation, nor is it in political victories; rather, our hope is in Jesus Christ – period. We who truly believe that Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross to save us from sin, rose the third day, ascended to the Father, and has promised to return, have a hope that transcends the world. This knowledge should cause us to rejoice. I will not pretend to be happy with the direction of our country, but in this I rejoice: “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded (convinced) that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12b) Hold to that hope and rejoice in it. We are encouraged to be “patient in tribulation.” In today’s vernacular, it would be “endure in all of your troubles.” It is easy to give up when things are not going well for us. (The Greek word translated “patience” here means more than just to wait in patience. It means to thrive in it, to live above what troubles we have.) We can get discouraged and just want to throw up our hands and quit. We might say, “What’s the use, nothing seems to be going right.” This can happen to us at home, at work, at church, or wherever we might be. When we are going through trouble, we need to remember two things: (1) No one’s life is trouble-free, and (2) It’s not all about me. No matter what your problems are today, if you will look around, you will see others with worse troubles. This is where "rejoicing in hope" comes in. You are not alone in your troubles, for the Holy Spirit is with you, and you have fellow Christians to encourage you. This brings us to a third thing that will help us "rejoice in hope" and be "patient in tribulation," and that is, “Be constant in prayer.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul admonished us to “pray without ceasing.” In Luke 18:1b, we are encouraged to “always pray and not to faint.” “Faint” here means to lose heart. “Take it to the Lord in prayer” is always good advice. No matter what the “it” is that we take to the Lord in prayer, He has an answer for us, and will encourage us to go forward. We should pray constantly, even when we do not feel like praying, for the Lord is always ready to listen to us and give us encouragement and guidance. Think on these three virtues! Pray over them! Memorize them! Hold them close to your heart and live in victory. Bro. Joe “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 6. I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me.”
When I read this text this morning I looked it up in my CouchPotatoRedux file, or archive, and to my surprise, I have never written an article about it. I am about to correct that mistake. The text gives us three thing that we need to remember that will make our relationship with Jesus and, consequently, with each other. Here it is: “But I have trusted in thy mercy…” Do we really believe that God is merciful toward us, loves us and wants the best for us? You believe this if you trust in His mercy, His “steadfast love.” Do you trust that this is true whether things are going good or bad in your life? People fall out with God because He doesn’t make everything good for them. He uses the bad and the good that happens to us in life to teach us about His love and care. This is a difficult thing to do, but if we really want to live an effective Christian life, we just have to trust that God is working in our lives for the best. I could give you personal illustration after illustration about this, but there is nothing that I can write that will convince you until you actually believe that God’s love for you is steadfast and that you can trust Him to be merciful. “My heart shall rejoice in your salvation…’ I have heard it said that some people get religion, but they get over it. That would be true if one got “religion” but when he, or she, gets saved, you do not get over that. Notice that David wrote: “My heart shall rejoice…” Real salvation is a matter of the heart and it causes rejoicing. We don’t go around shouting “glory, glory” all of the time, but our hearts are rejoicing because we have a dynamic and eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. This means that in our hearts we have accepted that God is merciful and that we can trust Him to take us through, around or over anything that we meet in life. Is your heart settled on the salvation that Jesus made possible at Calvary? If so, rejoice and be glad. (Why wouldn’t we?) “I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me…” David trusted, rejoiced and sang because He knew that God had been good to him. This is not a “name it and claim it” claim. Just the fact that Jesus invites us into a relationship with Him should put a song on our hearts. A lot of the world’s Christians are poor, but they rejoice and sing because Jesus is enough. In our “land of plenty” this is sometimes difficult to understand, but even here it is true that Jesus is enough. Thankfully, God does not require that have a good singing voice because He hears the song on our hearts. Do you trust in God’s mercy? Do you rejoice in His salvation? Do you sing because of His goodness to you? Bro, Joe “Sing unto the Lord, sing psalms unto Him, talk you of all His wondrous works. 10. Glory in His holy name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.”
This text is an example of a call to rejoice in the Lord. Throughout the Bible we are called to rejoice. The question for you is that do you rejoice in the Lord, and does your life reflect that rejoicing? I want to share some reasons we should rejoice in the Lord, and that our lives should reflect that rejoicing. First, we have a God who loves us. There is nothing any plainer in the Bible than that God loves us. The apostle John had personally experienced God’s love through His daily contact with Jesus. He wrote about that love in 1 John 4:16: “And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in Him." We do not have to question whether or not God loves us. We can accept the fact that He loves us, and that will make a difference in our lives. Do you know that God loves you? That’s right; God really and truly loves you. He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you and save you from your sins. I want to encourage you to accept God’s love and rejoice in it. Second, we have a God who wants to bless us. Do we really want His blessings, or do we see that we can have His blessings in our lives? We have an example in the Bible of how people shun the blessings of God in Israel. He had delivered the Israelites from Egypt. He had divided the Red Sea for them. It wasn’t long before they were griping and complaining about their lot in life. Time and again God blessed the Israelites and they soon forgot about it and continued to gripe and complain. In the same way, God wants to bless us, but do we know that He wants to bless us? We should rejoice in the blessings that He has given us. If you have received the salvation that God offers through His Son, you should rejoice and your life should reflect your rejoicing. Claim God’s blessings today and rejoice in Him. Third, we have a God who wants to give us a purpose in life. We realize the love and blessings of God when we accept his will and purpose for our lives. God wants you be His farmer. God wants you to be His pharmacist. God wants you to be His school teacher. God wants you to be his cashier. God wants you to be His Sunday School teacher. God wants you to be His deacon. God wants you to be His preacher. We should rejoice in the fact that God wants to use us in whatever our vocations are. Think of it: The God of the universe loves you, wants to bless you and He wants to use you in His purposes. He doesn’t just want to use you in the church. He wants to use you in your daily life. These are three reasons for us to rejoice. They are reasons for you to rejoice! Bro. Joe “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” NKJV
This text is from one of my favorite psalms, and the printed verse one of my favorite verses. In a former pastorate, the children’s choir used to sing a chorus based on the text verse. (The tune is going through my head as I write.) When I read it this morning, some thoughts came to mind that I want to share with you. Do we really believe that “This is the day the Lord has made"? And will we "rejoice and be glad in it"? As we go through the day and meet its frustrations, do we believe that God made the day and do we still rejoice in it? This is an important question. Do we experience, or feel, His presence in the frustrations? Frankly, there are times when I have to stop and remember this verse. I find that the small frustrations that I meet in a day challenge me more than the bigger issues. I have a feeling that I am not alone in this. Seriously, if we really believe that “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” we will make an effort to rejoice anyway. It does give us something to think about --- doesn’t it???? That brings me to the next thought that I had on this subject this morning: Does the fact that “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” make a difference in our lives? You can see from what I wrote above, that I need to work on it. (Don’t scoff. I imagine that you need to work on it too.) After I thought about it for a moment, I realized that it is according to what the frustration or problem is that I have to face in a day. It is interesting that the small things, like a temperamental computer, causes a negative reaction, but bigger things are taken in stride. We need to work on letting this text make a difference in our lives in the large and small things, and we will be happier, more content, people. If we see God’s presence in everything that happens in our lives, we will look at life’s problems differently. This brings me to the next thought that I had on this subject this morning: Does the fact that “we will rejoice and be glad in it” mean that we will smile and be happy about everything that happens? You know that there are things that happen in our lives that will make us unhappy. If we get bad news about the death of a loved one, we do not laugh. If we have an accident that injures us, we do not laugh. What we do is rejoice in the fact that God is with us in the bad and the good things that happen in our lives. God is present at all times in our lives. Jesus promised to be with us until the end of the ages. He promised to give us the Holy Spirit to live in us and go through all of life’s experiences with us. We rejoice in the fact that all that Jesus promised is true. He never promised us that every thing that happens in our lives will be good, and that we will win at everything in life. His presence is the important ingredient that causes rejoicing, not that everything is good and goes our way. Rejoicing is not always jumping up and down and chanting, “We are number one.” Rejoicing can also be thanking God for His presence and for His work in our lives regardless. It is true that “This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” There is no joy like the joy of knowing Christ and knowing that He is with us in all of life – the good and the bad. Rejoice! Bro. Joe “When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he comes upon the people, he will invade them with his troops. 17. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive tree shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 18. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds (deer) feet, and He will make me to walk upon high places…”
The prophet Habakkuk was written in approximately 620-612 BC during the latter part of Josiah’s reign. (The Revell Bible Dictionary) In his first prayer the prophet questioned why God wasn’t taking action against Judah because of their idolatry and all of the immorality that this entailed. God’s answer to Habakkuk was that Judah would be destroyed by Babylon in the years to come. (It happened in 586-587 BC.) The second prayer of the prophet was why God would use a godless people like the Babylonians to destroy Judah. God assured Habakkuk that He would destroy the Babylonian Empire as well. Habakkuk realized that destruction was coming upon his people. He accepted that God’s judgment was inevitable that there was nothing that could be done to stop it. This is a good reminder to us as well, as we go about our merry way doing whatever we want to do. “God’s wheels grind slowly but they grind surely.” The thing that we need to see is Habakkuk’s reaction to this news. When He accepted that God is God and that He will do what He will, Habakkuk reacted by the faith that he mentioned in 2:4b: “The just shall live by faith." Our text is the prophet’s reaction and we should take it to heart. In verse 17, Habakkuk wrote that if everything was destroyed he would believe in God and serve Him. (Read it in the text printed above.) In verse 18, he wrote, “Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” We need to learn what the great prophet learned, i.e., that our rejoicing should not depend on our outward circumstances, but in the joy of the Lord. The fact that God is real and present and loving us transcends all earthly concerns. This is exactly the same reason that Paul was enabled to declare what he did in Philippians 4:11: “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” It is difficult for us to realize, but the Lord is enough. We will understand this fully when we see Him in glory. Meanwhile, no matter what is going on around us, let us glory in the Lord. This doesn’t mean that we will not take a stand. What it means is that we are not going to give in to despair and depression because of what is happening in the word. Verse 19 gives us the reason why Habakkuk would rejoice in the God of his salvation: “The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places.” The prophet drew His strength from the Lord instead of worldly circumstances. Because of God’s strength, Habakkuk could be like a deer on the mountain, he could walk sure-footed in the world and be above the circumstances. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit in our lives, our hearts, to strengthen and guide us day by day. We literally have the strength of the Lord living in us. For that reason, we can walk like a deer on the mountain and maintain our joy, knowing that we are secure in the Lord. We can say with Paul in Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Let’s catch the spirit of Habakkuk in the darkness of the hour. God is alive and at work – Rejoice! Bro. Joe |
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