This is the first in an 8-part series on “Guarding your Heart.”
Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice…always…in the Lord.”
Rejoice friend! Don’t worry, be happy! Gladden your heart! Lift up your head! Be joyful!
For some, these words resonate; for others, they are empty and hollow. Is the problem a matter of personality? “Maybe I’m the wrong number on the Enneagram?” “Perhaps my personality just doesn’t jive with this command.”
Not only that, but this passage seemingly ignores our circumstances as if they don’t exist. Does God even know what you are going through? Something massive, heavy, and impossible?
But here in the 4th chapter of Philippians, the command is given to rejoice not once but TWICE! We can easily ignore one command, but when it’s repeated twice? It stands out! It is louder, bolder, and more obnoxious, kind of like your child calling your name. Once, and you hope they stop (but you know better than that), but then it gets louder and louder and louder until you can’t ignore it anymore.
Rejoice, rejoice, REJOICE, REJOICE!!!
The events of the last several months in the U.S. have snapped many of us out of our American stupor of comfort in unique ways. COVID-19, police brutality, racism, protesting, rioting, looting, murder, and unrest are increasing in our country, unsettling many people.
What about you?
In the past few months, your discomfort may have looked like a lost job, downturn of income, decrease in personal interactions, a magnification of relationship struggles, sickness, or even death of a loved one.
Perhaps you are one of those considered at-risk either through age, pre-existing conditions, or through your own anxieties.
Maybe there has been virtually no direct effect on you, except the irritation of government control, media messages, and political wrangling by those who are either in power or who want to be.
Whatever you may be experiencing, our loving heavenly Father speaks to us and commands us to rejoice not once, but twice. He also gives us two qualifiers.
The first one seems really out of place and pretty tone deaf by itself:
ALWAYS.
What? How about not.
So, God wants me to rejoice in unemployment? How about disability? Broken relationships? Addictions? Anxiety? Despair? Abuse? COVID-19? Brutality? Riots? Looting? Politicians, celebrities, and average people playing the blame game for the difficulties they face? How are we supposed to rejoice about all that? Nope, not doing it…
The second qualifier clarifies the first and snaps us into focus:
IN THE LORD.
Ok? Maybe you are at least intrigued instead of completely turned off by the hollow call to rejoice always.
This is God’s Word to us after all. His truth. His loving truth to His precious kids.
Because He is communicating His truth with His love to us, we have to wrestle with it. Corporately and personally. Rejoice…always…in the Lord. Be glad, be joyful, celebrate, revel, and delight.
As we sit still, quiet our souls and search for the truth that our Father is trying to tell us, we can begin to think deeply on how we can rejoice all day long in the Lord. This rejoicing is not about circumstances. It can’t be!
It isn’t about whether we see the glass as half full, half empty or refuse to believe in glasses.
It is about the Lord.
He is our singular focus no matter if a storm is raging or we are experiencing tranquility.
For someone like me who loves words, it is always helpful to check out the opposite of a word in order to understand the concept. The opposite of rejoice includes bemoan, bewail, grieve, lament, regret, or weep. You could also throw some words in there like enrage, incense, provoke, harass, agitate, complain, whine, aggravate, offend, and insult. Considering these words definitely helps us to understand rejoice better, doesn’t it?
Jesus has promised us many things in His Word. Things like a guarantee of trouble in this world, but also His presence (John 16:33); things like persecution, but also the Holy Spirit (Luke 12;12), and sin (Romans 3:23), but also forgiveness and freedom (John 8:36). He has promised us His peace (John 14:27). He has conquered our two greatest enemies on the cross and resurrection: sin and death.
So, rejoice in the Lord always. Seriously, you should rejoice!
- In what things will you begin to rejoice in the Lord today?
- What do you think would happen if you committed to making rejoicing in the Lord a regular discipline in your life?
- Make a commitment to write down 5 “rejoice in the Lord” things per day over the next two weeks.
- What things have you been complaining, whining, and even raging about lately, that you need to begin to rejoice in the Lord about?
- Write a quick prayer promising to rejoice in the Lord about something in your life.