Living Water Church

“This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24.

As our church draws our study of Philippians to a close, one of the themes of the letter is the command to rejoice.  The concept of rejoicing or joy appears 16 times in just four chapters.  Paul dedicated his life to following Christ, but in so doing he faced poverty, beatings, and imprisonment.  In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote that he was writing while living in chains.  Can you even imagine…living in chains?  But in spite of all this, Paul chose to rejoice.  He learned to be content.  How?

Wouldn’t it be easy if the answer was just a simple formula like A+B = contentment.  Sadly, it is not so.  As I pondered the question, I came to the conclusion that Paul did not live in denial.  He didn’t live in some mental la-la land where he refused to admit to his problems.  Rather, he openly acknowledged the chains, the poverty, the pain.  But at the same time, he chose to focus his mind and his heart on the promises of God.  Promises like:  “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.”  Phil. 4:19.

Paul had an assurance about him, a hope, that no matter what happened to him, Jesus Christ was with Him.  And with this confident assurance, Paul was able to choose to rejoice.  The Psalmist wrote, “I will rejoice and be glad…” Sometimes rejoicing is an act of our will.  Choose to rejoice today!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.