Athane is a communication specialist, journalist, author, editor and speaker from George, South Africa. She is a regular contributor to blogs and other media, and speaks on issues including personal and corporate communication, womanhood, grief and Bible-based faith.
Her extraordinary grief recovery experience following the death of her husband, Desmond, prompted her to write Peace in Grief, and has led to a Christian-based grief support ministry. Today she ponders Paul as he writes to the Philippians, …
REJOICE ALWAYS
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Philippians 4:4 (NIV)
As a child, I heartily sang along with a church song about rejoicing always, but as an adult I chose to not think too much about its implications because…really?
Firstly, Paul has never come across to me as the ‘rejoicing’ type. His letters are full of instructions and reprimands and, I think, he must have been a very intense guy – filled with passion and urgency for the lost and certainly not cheerful at first glance.
Secondly, ‘rejoicing always’, is humanly impossible. ‘Always’ is a very extreme word choice in a fallen world where things can go seriously wrong, and let’s be honest, acting ‘happy’ will probably be considered a very inappropriate response to life falling apart around us.
But rejoicing is not an emotional reaction, it’s a position of faith.
And ‘always’ is about consistency.
The scripture actually gives us the big clue: it is not ‘Rejoice’ full stop. It is rejoice in the Lord always. No way can we always be in happy mode, but we can be deeply secure in who God is and we can be positively confident, always, that He is in control.
Choosing our response to everything, good and bad, in the moment when it happens and beyond, is the best guide to our overall sense of peace and joy. Obviously, initially, we are likely to get it wrong. Our first response to bad news, conflict and trauma will probably be anger, fear and anxiety and good news might be met with an unbalanced sense of pride and self-accomplishment. This makes us human, but Paul challenges us to be more.
If we practice regularly and for long enough to ‘correct’ our response when we realise our first reaction had probably not been so ‘godly’, we will eventually develop the good habit of considered responses.
The more we tap into God through His Spirit and the Bible, the more likely our default response will become more godly, uplifting and prosperous – which is what, I think, Paul had in mind when he gave us a list of things to think about in some other verses in Philippians 4.
“…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. …And the God of peace will be with you.” (Excerpts from verses 8 and 9, NIV)
If we can get our heads right, the result will be the fruits of the spirit settling in our everyday lives… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control .
And now Paul’s serious-yet-joyful demeanour makes more sense. Rejoicing (always) in the Lord is owning what God had done for us, not just in our earthly lives but on the cross. Rejoicing is trusting that He is the same God now and forever and, even when we are in a storm, we can be joyful in the knowledge that He’s got this.
So, this remains the challenge: “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, Rejoice.” (KJV)
