Description
Finding Joy in All Circumstances
Are you feeling on top of the world, or life has got you down? This episode explores t… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
How are you doing? Are you feeling good? Are you down? Is life easy? Do you feel like you’ve been battered? Paul says, whatever your circumstances, you can always rejoice. Let’s take a look and meditate on Philippians chapter four, verse four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice.
He’s really emphasising this, isn’t he? He says it twice, we are to rejoice in the Lord. Now, this is not some kind of naive, superficial happiness that Paul is reaching for. He’s saying that our entire source of joy and well wellbeing can be found in the Lord, in our God, in Jesus, in the Holy Spirit who fills us.
Remember that part of the Fruit of the Spirit is joy. So this rejoicing in the Lord comes out of the strength that he gives us, the resources that he puts into us.
And rejoicing is healthy. It sets our perspective. It helps us to see that God is a God of joy. He himself finds joy. When he created this incredible universe and said it was good, this filled him with pleasure and delight. And it can do that for us too.
So if we fix our gaze on God, on the things of God, on his purposes and his design, this too can fill us with joy, irrespective of what we’re going through.
This is not to deny our feelings or our circumstances, particularly if those are difficult and we are feeling anything but joyful. This is merely to say, put your focus back on God, whatever you are going through. Even if you are walking as I have done through the value of the shadow of death, we can rejoice in the Lord.
Our hope is in him. Our eternal security is found in him in what Jesus has done for us. And therefore we always have a reason to rejoice.
