God's Will for Us to Rejoice

God is not inviting us to rejoice only when life is easy, successful, and as we hope it would be. He is actually commanding us to rejoice always, even amidst difficulties.

God's Will for Us to Rejoice

This week's devotions are written by my friend Jessica Hermann, former director of our college ministry at Great Hills Baptist Church.

- Pastor Danny

"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)

This week, we are exploring verses in the Bible that directly state things which are God's will for our lives. For the next three days we will break down the three commands found in the verses above.

Here in 1 Thessalonians 5, the Lord reveals three things that are His will for us. Let's consider the first one today: "Rejoice always." This seems like such a simple command. In fact, this is the shortest verse in the original Greek New Testament. However, if you've lived any life at all, then you know that this is no easy verse to live out.

The first part of the command is easy: "Rejoice." No problem, right? We can rejoice when we get the new job. We can rejoice when the Lord says "yes" to our prayer. We can rejoice when we get a favorable report from our doctors. But what about if we lose our jobs? What if the Lord says "no" to the things we have been praying for months or even years for? What if the diagnosis isn't looking very good? Can we rejoice then? It is now that the second half of the verse comes into play. This is where it gets difficult: "Always."

The Lord is not inviting us to rejoice only when life is easy, successful, and as we hope it would be. The Lord is actually commanding us to rejoice always, in all circumstances, in all times, and in all places.

Now, this could easily be misunderstood as a command that we must rejoice in everything, or another way of putting it is that we have to be happy about everything that happens. This is not the picture being painted here. For example, the Bible does not tell us to rejoice when somebody dies. Even though, for the Christian, death is just a passing from this world into the presence of God, the Bible still refers to death as an enemy which will be defeated. Therefore, though we can rejoice in knowing the end result for the believer, we aren't being called to think that death is wonderful and great.

Rather than rejoicing in everything, we are called to rejoice through everything or despite everything. When things go wrong, we don't rejoice that they have gone wrong; we rejoice despite the fact that they have gone wrong, with the understanding that the Lord can use even the most difficult things to bring about beauty. When death and despair and brokenness are present, it can be difficult to rejoice. So why then can we rejoice? If we're not rejoicing in the brokenness itself then what are we rejoicing in?

We rejoice in the goodness of God. We rejoice in the good news of the Gospel. We rejoice that death and despair and brokenness will have an end and all things will be restored to God's beautiful and perfect design. We rejoice that God does not waste anything and that He uses even painful things to shape us into His image. We rejoice that God is in control. We rejoice that God sees us and has promised to never leave us. We rejoice in God; He is our joy.

How then can we rejoice always? Keep your eyes always on Jesus, and rejoice in who He is and what He has done.