Rejoicing is easy when everything else are falling into places.
But how can we practice Philippians 4:4 when things are broken into pieces?
There are many commandments in the Bible that was given to us as a guide for a true Christian living. Romans 12 is a good example of the guidelines that we can use. We also have the Love one another verse in John 13.
Compared to those not-so-easy-to-achieve-commands, Rejoice in the Lord always, seems less complicated to obey.
Yeah. IT SEEMS...
But in reality, how can we rejoice when we just read a termination letter from your company or when your car broke and you do not have an insurance to take care of it?
How can you paint a smile in your face when your mother is sick while your father is getting weak? Your brother's family is falling apart and you are the only one left to provide for his 5 children...
Can you still see the beautiful day if you just arrived home from your husband's funeral? When you are sitting 36 hours outside the ICU, praying for miracle for your only child to survive Leukemia...
Would you still care to say good morning to the first person you see in the office when you left the house fighting with your wife? When the bank keeps on calling you for the overdue payment and bounced cheques, can you still appreciate the sun light and the cool morning breeze?
Life may seems unfair especially when you were trapped on a situation where your dreams were vanishing because of someone's greediness or lousiness... when the worlds turns upside down.
Joy is eternal. Happiness is temporal.
We can be happy even when our heart is grieving.
We can laugh even when inside us, we are crying.
Happiness is something that is outside, something visible in the eyes.
While joy is coming from inside, something that was felt by the heart.
Rejoicing is an eternal thing. It comes from within.
Someone can be at the party, dancing gracefully, but was never happy.
A rich man may have all that he needs and living in luxury, but inside of him is empty.
There is a complete family, but were torn separately.
How can then we achieve the joy and fully rejoice, in every situation that we are in?
Paul has reminded us in this final exhortation to the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord always...
We are to rejoice always... in all the situations, whatever conditions we are into, because joy rely not on any circumstances, not on success, riches nor in our own family, but it in the Lord.
If we learn to rely on Him and trust Him fully, only then that we can rejoice truthfully.
Pain, heartaches, worries, anger, fear and stress can't take the joy if we surrender our life to Jesus and allow Him to be our Lord.
The Gospel is not about being rich or being trouble-free when you accept Jesus. It is not about being the person that you want to be when you believe in Him.
You won't be spare from the hardships of this world nor be excused to have problem because you are a believer of Christ.
But Paul reminded us in the 4th chapter of Philippians:
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And with that, I will say it again, Rejoice!
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