Rejoice

“Rejoice in the Lord always. again I say, rejoice!” Philippians 4:4

Paul tells the believers at Philippi to rejoice. He wants them to get the message; he tells them again.

Do we have times where life gets tough? Yes, we do. Do we grumble about the latest issue that has beset us? We might, after all, we are still human.

Recently, the scripture at the top of this entry appeared at the bottom of the page in my journal. I wrote on it as it related to my life. I went to sleep and later that morning, I went to my devotional book.(I choose one to use each year.) Guess what the day’s scripture reading was? Philippians 4:29. Did this get my attention? Yes.

What does Paul say? Should we be happy for the problems and setbacks life seems to place in our path. No. As I see it, we are to look for something in that situation that could have caused the circumstance to be worse than it is. We are to be thankful that the problem is no worse than it is.

Several years ago, my dad and stepmother lived in a mobile home. He’d had heart bypass surgery that spring. I receive a call that the electricity in the front part of their trailer was out. I drove over there not knowing what to expect.

A couple, friends of some cousins, were there. This man was searching out the source of the problem. While we women sat and waited. The man’s wife brought up a good point.

My stepmother was on oxygen, 24 hours a day. Her electric concentrator sat in their bedroom at the back of the trailer. This woman I had just met pointed out the fact that the situation could have been worse-the power issue could have involved the back part, including the concentrator.

I read my Life Application Bible every day. As I read it that day I found this scripture two times, I saw in the verse notes something I had always found hard to practice. “Paul’s attitude teaches us an important lesson: our inner attitudes do not have to reflect our outward circumstances. Paul was full of joy because he knew no matter what happened to him: Jesus Christ was with him.”

When we face unimaginable issues in life, it is difficult to keep a positive attitude. We have to rely upon the Lord Jesus to guide us through. He calms our hearts, shows us ways to handle certain aspects of the situation, and speaks gentle reminders as we proceed to the solution.