Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Paul’s letter to the Philippians has been called “an epistle of joy,” and Paul mentions joy frequently in it. Notice that in today’s scripture, Paul encourages his readers to rejoice “in the Lord." This tells us that we are to rejoice in God always. We cannot always rejoice in our circumstances or in the conditions in which we sometimes find ourselves, but we can rejoice in the Lord at all times. Paul suffered greatly at various points throughout his life, so he understood that while joy is an emotion, it is also a choice. Even when we don’t feel happy, we can choose to find joy in God.
How do we rejoice in the Lord? We start by thinking about what we have in Christ, rather than about what we don’t have in life. For example, we are forgiven of all of our sins, our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we will live in God’s presence eternally. No matter what we don’t have, we always have hope, and hope is powerful. We also have God’s unconditional love, His complete acceptance, His strength, His guidance, His peace, His grace, and other wonderful blessings that are too many to count.
I encourage you to choose to think about what you do have rather than what you don’t have, and you’ll find your level of joy rising. Our thinking is the foundation of our emotions, and if we want to have pleasant emotions such as joy, we need to set our minds on things that produce them.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, today I choose to focus on what I do have, not what I don’t have, and to rejoice in You at all times.
