A Thought for the Day – 057 – Rejoice!
As a child I used to enjoy going to town with my mom and walking through
those revolving doors. One second you are standing and waiting for your turn to
enter and then quickly you are thrust from the heat of the summer to the cool
delicious smells of roasted nuts, chocolate and the perfumes of the department
store. In some ways life is a revolving door and the preacher in Ecclesiastes
sets this tone for us in Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
Comments and challenges
There are without a doubt,
many reasons to complain about life; I know that I do more than my share of
complaining. No I don’t complain so that you won’t have to! But it would be
nice if one out of ten of us were designated complainers, then we could go to
that person and explain our complaint and give them a tip or some gratuity and
be done with it. But no it is more like nine out of ten of us are complainers
and for the one who does not complain we smother them with our miseries.
The Holy Bible is
saturated with the JOY OF THE LORD and we as a church family were reminded of
this by our pastor just this week that one of the areas neglected by believers
today is the joy that we can have in Christ; so in thinking about this, I agree.
Therefore in this thought I plan that if the LORD will open the door to begin
sharing joy on a daily basis rather than complaining about things that only PRAYER
to God will solve, than it is time to look to the biblical command for you and
me to be full of JOY.
First let me say that
being “happy” is not a popular subject in the Holy Bible since the references
of being happy in the Old Testament are twenty-one and for the New Testament
are seven. Now this does not mean that God is against people being happy so don’t
take that approach, but consider this. Happiness is generated by man, like in
Genesis 30:13 or Proverbs 127:5 and Acts 26:2.
The references to joy and
rejoicing in the Holy Bible are too numerous to count and joy is expressed by
mankind but it is generated by God, for example; Ezra 6:16, Isaiah 35:10, John
15:11 and often in the epistles we are commanded to rejoice because of God’s
gift of our position in Christ; like the command found in Philippians 4:4.
The world around us
strives to be happy and when this emotion is expressed the fallout can end in
the bitterness of tears. Now the world knows this, it is not ignorant or naïve to
the dangers of being happy one moment and down trodden the next. Happiness is
like a rug, stand on it too long and there will always be someone to jerk it
out from under you. On the other hand since God is the giver of joy, no one can
trip you up and take it away, notice John 16:16-24.
The world has rejected the
joy of the LORD and now lives in minute happiness’s; a short lived period of
time in life when laughter is cruel and full the onslaught of pending fears. But
those of us who have sorrowed in this world; who have come to Jesus, now live
in the JOY OF THE LORD. He has given us opportunity to be joyful even in our
weeping and sorrow. This is a large part of the salvation gift that only those
who are in Christ can know and experience.
Rejoice today, again I say
rejoice… the LORD is at hand. Yes, to the world you might look a little loony
singing and making melody in your heart to the LORD. But to Him you look like
the Saint He is conforming and transforming you to be. This is simply walking
in WISDOM of His Word – Ephesians 5:15-21 and Romans 12:1-2
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