Always 2!

Always 2!

Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice! [Ps. 37:4.] Philippians 4:4 AMPC

In trying to define 'rejoice', there is a word that seems to run through the Google definitions, and it is the word 'joy'. Let's look at the options: 'feel or show great joy or delight' or 'cause joy to'. What this tells me is that there is a special significance to joy and I need to look at it more closely. 

It is also good to look at what being happy means, and by Google definitions, it means: 'feeling or showing pleasure or contentment' or

'fortunate and convenient.' The definitions for Happy seem to focus on what is visible and/or audible, while joy requires us to go beyond the surface so we can fully understand what it requires from us. 

It is important to note that after love, joy is the next fruit of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible. This makes it clear to me that you can't have joy outside of the Presence of the Holy Spirit in you. Men can make you happy, by the words they speak or the things they gift you, but they cannot assign you joy, because you don't get joy by inheritance or willpower, but by relationship. Joy flows from God to all who know Him and allow Him rule in their hearts. 

And it has to be said that only in God can a man rejoice even when the physical realities around him make it sound silly. How do you explain men like Paul and Silas singing songs in prison after they had been beaten and wrongfully imprisoned? They had something in their hearts that the world and its issues could not take away or suppress. How does a Stephen being stoned to death be able to forgive those who were committing the grievous offence, and could still see heaven open? There had to be a Presence that the world could not duplicate. 

So, when I am asked to rejoice always, check out the context: IN the Lord, not in any man, or due to the favourable conditions around me. It is because I know God now, and He is the Source and Person behind all that I could ever need. Nothing outside of God can give you that which only God can give you. The devil deceives men into thinking there are viable alternatives, but what I need to keep at the back of my mind always is this: if it didn't come from God, it cannot look like God and will not end like God. 

And the instruction to rejoice is repeated again for emphasis: this is not something to be taken lightly. Repetition strengthens memory, so when I am tempted to compromise or give in, I remember that I am helped by a God who can do all things. I keep my gaze on Him alone; nothing else has the staying power that God has. He is the One who can sustain to the end, and take me into the eternal rest He has always promised. Nothing else; nobody else has been able to guarantee that. By and In Him, I rejoice. His time of favour is here.