Rejoice!

Have you ever been asked to do something you thought was unreasonable - like when your parents told you to apologize for hitting a sibling when you weren’t really sorry and when it was their fault anyway? Or how about when you accepted a job only to discover that you were doing everyone else’s job as well? When God tells us to "Rejoice always," even in the midst of suffering (when all we feel like doing is complaining), it might feel a little unreasonable at times.

One of the most difficult challenges we face as Christians is to rejoice continually. When life is tough and there seems to be nothing good, it flies in the face of common sense and reason to give thanks.  But there's always something to be thankful for, isn't there? After all, who gives you the breath to complain about your circumstances?  Who allows you to wake up in the morning?  Who commits never to leave you or forsake you?  Who promises to transform all your circumstances into something good?  Who has given you his words of life to comfort you in times of trouble?  Who is the one person that not even death can separate you from?  The answer is GOD, and HE is our reason for rejoicing! 

Psalm 119:68 struck me this week.  David tells God, “You are good and you do good.”  If God is good (his nature is good, so it's impossible for him to be anything less) and if he always does good (every circumstance for the child of God is a function of God’s goodness and love), than what more do we need to be thankful for? 

It's no coincidence that the same man who wrote, “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God” also wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!”  Clearly, he had discovered the source of joy.