Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Let your graciousness be known to everyone.  The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7 HCSB

Our former pastor told us that a grumpy Christian was an oxymoron. In our scripture passage today Paul, in his letter to the Philippians is telling them to rejoice in the Lord. When our joy is found in the Lord, then we can have true joy.  When we try to find our happiness in other things it is a temporary happiness. But when we find true joy in the Lord it is everlasting. But we must choose to continuously pursue this joy through a close relationship with our Lord and Savior.

Now some of you are reading this and thinking that I have no idea what you are going through. You are right, I have no idea what you are going through. But, I know that I have been through some rough times in my life.  I have been through them trying to do it on my own and I have been through them trusting in God and giving it over to Him.  Giving it over to Him helped me to not worry. You see fear and faith don’t go together. You can’t experience both at the same time. You can’t worry and trust God simultaneously. So you have to make a choice to give your troubles to God and trust Him with them.

Paul tells us that the Lord is near. God is right there, ready and willing to help, we only need to ask. When you feel God’s presence in your life, it gives you peace.

Paul then instructs the Philippians to let their graciousness be known to everyone. We should put others needs above our own.  We should treat others with kindness. If you walk around the workplace like Oscar the Grouch, people probably don’t want any of what you have.  But if they see someone who exhibits Christ like behavior, someone who has unending joy and peace in their lives, they will want some of that. There was a reason that great crowds followed Jesus, they wanted the salvation that He had to offer, they felt the love, peace, and joy that came from being in His presence.

So, in order to have peace and joy, we need to not worry and we need to be gracious to others.  That sounds like a pretty tall order I know, but Paul tells us how to do this.

We do this through prayer. We should pray about everything. We should go to God with gratitude for the things He has already done for us and gratitude in knowing that when we love Him and are called according to His purpose that He works all things out for our good (Romans 8:28). Then we should make our requests known to Him.  Now, yes, I know that God is all knowing and He already knows what we need and what we want, but we still need to have an open line of communication with Him.  It’s hard to be in a relationship where  there is no communication, right? We must also listen, God speaks to us through His Holy Word, so bible study is also an important part of this communication.

Finally if we choose to rejoice in the Lord always, not just every now and then and we choose not to worry, but to give our worries over to God, we can have peace. We can have the kind of peace that isn’t dependent on our circumstances.  A peace that others may not understand, a peace that can only come from God. Once you have this kind of peace, believe me, you don’t want to lose it. You may even feel sadness for those who don’t have it.

Peace and joy that come from the Lord are not easily taken away. The devil will try to steal it, but our scripture passage tells us that this kind of peace and joy will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. We just have to focus on Him and not allow the devil to distract us.

The kind of temporary peace and joy that we can get when circumstances are good are the kinds that the devil can easily steal from us simply by testing us. The devil can simply test us and make our circumstances not so good, Job is a prime example of this. But when our peace and joy is found in our Lord and Savior, the devil can’t take that away.

Now the only way to have this is through Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor, this is why we pray in Jesus’ name.  He doesn’t force peace and joy on you, you must choose to accept it. You must choose to daily pursue a close, personal relationship with Him.  The benefit of this is that peace and joy that makes others stop and take notice. Others look at you and see your graciousness, they see something different and they want what you have.  You may lead others to Christ without ever knowing it. That is a great benefit, but the best benefit is the peace and joy that it brings to your life.

This world is full of things that can bring us down and make us upset, worried or even grumpy, but this is not what God wants for us. He wants us to have peace and joy. He wants first place in our lives. He wants us to focus on Him. When we do this, He rewards us with this peace and joy that is incomprehensible to those that have not experienced it for themselves. My prayer for you today is that you are not grumpy, but that you are experiencing this peace and joy. Focus on Him and trust in Him today, let go of your grumpiness. It will only weigh you down.

Have a great day!