“Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice.” – Philippians 4:4
Rejoice always.
It’s hard to rejoice always; some days it seems like there really is nothing to rejoice about. Your world may be closing in and collapsing all around. Hopes, dreams, relationships, security—all dropping like flies. You feel more like crying or screaming than rejoicing.
Or perhaps you’re just going through a dry place, just going through the motions. Each day is the same as the last, so mundane you forgot how to rejoice and aren’t really sure what to rejoice over.
I’ve been in both of those places. I have to admit that usually I just give up and don’t even try to rejoice at all. But there is something in the verse above that is all too often missed, “Rejoice IN THE LORD always.” Therein lies the key to our confusion.
We aren’t meant to rejoice in the crappy day, the lost friendship, or the work and at-home tensions, we’re supposed to rejoice in the Lord. He is infinitely good; we will never run out of reasons to praise Him. We don’t have to desperately search for things to thank Him for. HE is all we need, simply thanking Him for Him is enough.
The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
King David knew what it was like to suffer. He didn’t always feel like rejoicing. The book of Psalms is full of poetry about feeling like your life is over and you’ve got nothing left.
But David also wrote this: “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord,” (Psalm 116:17).
Our thankfulness can be a sacrifice. When we choose to rejoice in the Lord, we are choosing to place our emotions, our feelings, our circumstances on the altar. We are choosing to praise Him because He is worthy, not because we feel like it. Sometimes the best thing we can do is sacrifice our feelings, our plans, our disappointment and choose to be thankful.
This is the Will of God
Paul writes in his letter to the Thessalonian church, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
God’s will for us is that we give thanks. We talk a lot about the will of God as Christians. We wonder what His will for our lives could be, we pray that what we do would be within His will, and we often say in our prayers “if it is in Your will…”
This is one of the spots in scripture where God makes His will very clear, and we often overlook it. He calls us to rejoice, to give thanks, offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. No matter what is going on around us, no matter our circumstances, the known will of God each and every moment is that we give thanks.
Thank Him for Everything
Jason Gray wrote one of my favorite songs about thankfulness. It’s called Thank You for Everything. It’s a prayer that begins with thanking God for the simple things, the things we see every day that we may forget to thank Him for.
“Thank You for the world that awakes in the dawning light that breaks, and for the sunlight kissin’ my face; thank You. And for the stars out on parade at the ending of each day, so even in the dark I’m sayin’ thank You.”
The prayer thanks God for the things we have learned. When we can look back and see how things made us grow.
“Thank You for the gift of friends who know everywhere I’ve been and love me back home again. Thank You. And for the ones who let me down and taught me what I know now of forgiveness and the freedom I’ve found; thank You.”
But that’s not all. Sometimes we look back and we don’t understand. We just know that it hurt. But even then, we are called to give thanks.
“Thank You for the hardest parts and the beauty of these scars even though it broke my heart, thank You.”
When life is peaceful and good and filled with blessings, we often forget to rejoice in the Lord. Sure, we say grace at the dinner table, but do we really appreciate the goodness of God Himself when we look at the world around us? We run through life and see it as normal. We forget to dance through each day and see it as beautiful—see Him as beautiful.
When life is hard and cold and falling apart, we don’t feel like rejoicing in the Lord. We fall on our knees and tearfully beg. We raise our fists and demand an explanation. But we rarely sit quietly and remember that even though life might suck right now, God never changes, and He is always good in so many ways. We forget to offer up the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Thankfulness is Faithfulness
When we choose thankfulness, we choose faithfulness. When we rejoice in the Lord in all our circumstances and seasons, we show Him that we trust Him, no matter what is going on. This is true worship.
Raising your hands to praise in the rain the same as you would do in the sunshine. Thanking God for His goodness on the dark and cold days as you would on the bright and green days. This is true faithfulness.
We chose to be faithful because our God is faithful. Thankfulness in every situation is how our faithfulness makes itself known.
