"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice."
What was Paul thinking when he wrote: "Rejoice in the Lord always"? Didn't he know that there are times when we just do not feel like rejoicing? If anybody knew that, Paul did. He truly suffered to declare the Gospel to the world. But, he wrote, "rejoice always." And to reiterate he wrote, "Again I say rejoice." He wanted to emphasize that Christians should rejoice. Understand that Paul did not mean that Christians will always be happy, for happiness is circumstantial. Joy, however, has been given to us by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus promised us His joy in John 15:11: "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." Even in hard times we can rejoice, because we have Jesus in our lives, and He has given us abundant life here and life in heaven forever. I know that there have been times in my own life when I was experiencing difficult times but experienced a joy that was beyond my understanding. If you do not feel like rejoicing, that is only more reason why you should. The question that I want to pose in this article, is why should Christians rejoice? The first answer is because the Bible tells us to. Look up "joy" and "rejoice" in your condordance, and you will be amazed at how many times these two words are used in the Bible. But rejoicing should not just be legalistic. It should come from a heart that is so filled with the joy of the Lord that it cannot be eradicated. Second, we should rejoice because it makes us feel better. The only way that I can know this, is that I know I feel better when I am rejoicing than when I am complaining. When you are out of sorts with life, think about Jesus and what He has done in your life and it should help turn you from complaining to rejoicing. (Reminder: I am not writing this to make you feel guilty, but to make you feel better. Guilt will not lead you to rejoice. ) Third, rejoicing will make us live better lives. It will make a difference in how we treat people. If we approach life with a spirit of rejoicing, we will look more kindly at people, even people who are difficult to get along with. Rejoicing makes us want to do good things for people. It also makes us want to say good things to people. Let me confess that there are times when I want to be harsh with people, particularly people with whom I disagree. But I have discovered that a harsh reply only produces a harsh reply in return. This turns into an argument, which never, or seldom, accomplishes anything. Fourth, we should rejoice because rejoicing makes us better witnesses for Jesus. It is a fact that churches that have a spirit of rejoicing appeal to more people than those where people just go through the motions of worship. If rejoicing is genuine, it draws people to the "rejoicer." There are other reasons for us to rejoice, but these should suffice to help us to become more joyful in our lives and service to the Lord. You have a choice today. You can rejoice or you can complain. If you want to feel better, live better, and become a better witness, obey the Bible and rejoice. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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