Rejoice, Today?

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Philippians 4:4

Paul often left a lot of fudge room in his writings to us, such as in the line today about rejoicing in the Lord always. Always? Did the apostle of our Lord mean even in the day after a great disappointment? That always? What about the person over yonder hoping for a job on that big project and a new power takes the throne and cancels it, just like that? Rejoice then too? The dreaded positive test result arrives for the latest virus and that feeling of feverish sickness that began a few days ago is confirmed. Do we rejoice then? We've been over this before, but forgive me if I remind myself: no, no, and NO! The command is to rejoice IN THE LORD always. 

By turning our spiritual eyes to Jesus through prayer, worship, and His word, we will find reason upon reason for rejoicing in Him. Yes, the tribulations of this world will cause tears and sorrow. Paul did not tell us to rejoice in those things, but he did want us to always rejoice in Jesus our Lord. We also have this little snippet from our Lord: 

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

The good cheer comes because our Lord has overcome the world and not from the tribulation of the world, which is why there's that big 'but' in there.

Have a great Friday rejoicing in the Lord!

Bucky