Rejoice and Rejoice

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS

REJOICE AND REJOICE

Phil 4:4-7

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

NIV

Life has such a variety of circumstances, some of which might not give much opportunity to rejoice in. If we recall some of those horrific moments in our past, could we say we were rejoicing in the midst of them? Even the present has its days which could, if we allowed them, to push us into a state other than one of rejoicing. But that is not what we are admonished to do. We are told to rejoice in the Lord always and we are told twice. The fact is our situation in life should have no bearing on our always rejoicing in Jesus. It has been said we may not feel like rejoicing for a situation, but we can always rejoice in that situation. But that might not be accurate. Sometimes we might find ourselves in some unpleasant circumstance and it might be because of our own doing, or our own plans. However, we make our plans, but the Lord orders our footsteps. Therefore, it also might be possible our situation is due to the leading of the Lord for his purpose, which we may not yet be aware of. If that were the case, it could for our best, and therefore, we would have to rejoice because God is always about doing what is best for us. Yet, if none of that is at play in our lives, and things just happen because they happen, due to simply being alive and living in the flesh, then we still would have to always be in the attitude of rejoicing in the Lord because he is the one who has given us eternal life. No matter what this life brings our way, he brought eternal life our way. So we rejoice and rejoice because we have eternal life, in a perfect place, in a perfect body, in the presence of our Lord forever and ever. However, there is more regarding rejoicing, it also produces a condition of gentleness. The Greek word translated gentleness carries the meaning of seemly, suitable, equitable, fair, mild, and gentle. This would be opposed to being grumpy, or complaining, or acting as we have been treated unfairly or unequally. Who likes to be around a person like that? But let our gentleness be evident to all. Then just perhaps, people might enjoy being in our presence and we can share the goodness of the Lord with them for he is near. This rejoicing that results in gentleness also relieves us of anxiety. We are told not to be anxious about anything, that means anything which would include all aspects of this life and the one to come, although, we have already begun our eternal life the day we were born again. However, for the moment we are still occupying this physical body and in this temporal world and thus subject to some of its circumstances or situations. Yet, we are not to be anxious about any of those things. We also should not be anxious about our future, for it has been provided for by our Lord. Anxiety breeds discontentment, which leads to disappointment that drives that complaining spirit who has not an ounce of rejoicing and that would then result in being disobedient to the Lord. If we are not always rejoicing, we are on a slippery slope downhill. Instead, as we rejoice and reveal our gentleness to all, we have no anxiety, but instead, with an attitude of always being thankful, we present our requests to our Lord. We talk with our Lord, we converse with him about our life, our circumstances. If we are going to complain to anyone, it should be the Lord, letting him know how we feel, although he already knows. But it does us good to get it off our chest and in doing so, although we have to keep this attitude of thanksgiving, he will give us his peace. By our praying, talking with him, he comforts us, and his peace overwhelms us even though it is beyond or transcends understanding. Then our hearts and minds will know the path of God and we will know peace, contentment, joy, patience, gentleness, goodness, love, kindness and self-control.