“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV
This is the second devotion for this verse that I promised when I posted Wednesday’s devotional. I wrote about giving thanks on Wednesday and I want to look at rejoicing always today. The world would have us living life by a set of standards that places us in a mindset of negativity and a lifestyle of complaining. As I said on Wednesday, thankfully we don’t have to live by the world’s standards.
As a Christian, we have a different set of standards to live by, the ones put in place by Jesus. His idea of how to live is usually the exact opposite of what the world views as the way to live. The world will tell you that you should only feel and express the emotion that fits with the circumstance you are in. For example, if you are in a disagreement with another person, then you should feel angry or hurt by the situation and therefore you should express anger or sadness, possibly even entertain the idea of revenge. The way that Jesus instructs His followers to face that situation, is to have the emotion of anger or sadness, but to then give it to God, and choose to express love for the other person or show forgiveness for their part in the situation. See, the exact opposite.
The reason that Christians can choose to express joy at any time is because our joy is not determined by our situation, but by the fact that we are God’s children. If we rely on our situations to be joyful, then we are only joyful when the situation calls for it. Situations change which means our emotion changes per the world, but God doesn’t and since we are to base our joy in Him, our joy does not have to change. Even in some of the most difficult times in Christians’ lives, joy can be found.
As a Christian, an expression of joy in a difficult time doesn’t mean that we don’t experience other emotions such as sadness. Jesus isn’t saying we should not feel our emotions, we should, we are not robots. The difference is what we are choosing to do with our emotions at that moment. The world would say we are to remain in the sadness, where Jesus is telling us that we are to focus on Him and remain in the joy that we have because we are connected to Him. We are connected to Him because Jesus is always with us. As a child of God we can remember that situations change but God doesn’t change, we can count on Him remaining the same.
Are you able to rejoice in all things?