Circuit Thoughts

A wonderful verse about living our faith is Philippians 4:4-6. Rejoice in the Lord always: and again, I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

I mean, look at it. This is about what faith should be. Can you imagine rejoicing in every circumstance? Yes, EVERY circumstance. Now think about this.

It is easy to rejoice when things are going great. What is funny about that is we often forget to give thanks when we are being successful. How often have we neglected to thank God for the good stuff in life?

For instance, how many of you give thanks for your meal at a restaurant? The fact that you can eat out and order what you desire is a minor miracle in a world where most people live below the poverty line. Yet, while we may forget to give thanks for the good stuff in our life, we have no problem begging for God to help us during the tough times.

But Paul is telling us to rejoice ALWAYS. Not just at the good times, but also in the bad, and here is why.

Christ told his followers, (we call them disciples) that people will mistreat and persecute them simply because they follow him. We have stories in Acts where the disciples rejoiced even while they were being beat, because they were found worthy to suffer for the Lord. Paul sang while in prison and rejoiced when he suffered injury for sharing the Gospel.

There are many stories of Saints giving praise to God as they suffer humiliation and torture for worshiping Christ. They give us the example of rejoicing always. But what about us? How can we rejoice in the tough times? We are living in a time of potential war, or inflation and unrest. Hatred is running rampant, and very few places are truly safe. How do we rejoice in times like this?

We rejoice because we have something the world cannot give. As followers of Christ, we have HOPE. When sad things happen, we rejoice because we can give God control and let him deal with the issue. We rejoice because the bad is temporary, but our salvation is eternal. We rejoice because we know that God has this, and even the gates of hell will not prevail.

Followers of Christ can rejoice in all things because we know God is in charge. We can rejoice because we have good news to share. We can rejoice because we know God’s love and we share God’s message. There is no time to not rejoice.

So, rejoice always, and let people know why you rejoice. This world is just a temporary place for us, we have eternity to look forward to, and we have a Savior who is worth celebrating all the time.

Just a thought.

See you in church.