#DailyDevotion Rejoice in the Lord Always
Php4:4-5 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (5) Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is athand;
Rejoice in the Lord always. You might say, well that’s easy for you to say. Perhaps you are confusing being happy with rejoicing, though it is not far from it. Being glad is another way of looking at it. Paul would also have us rejoice if we are suffering for Christ’s sake or Jesus’ name. Yet here Paul is telling us to rejoice in the Lord always. Note the location of our rejoicing. It isn’t because everything is always going great. It isn’t because we find a silver lining in every cloud. Our rejoicing is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For what then shall we rejoice in the Lord and have cause to do it always? For one, the Lord Jesus has delivered us from judgment that is from being judged to be worthy of eternal damnation. Yes, what we deserve for our sins i.e. bitterness, hating, selfishness, gossiping, talking back to our parents, drunkenness, sexual immorality, stealing and the like AND even our contemplations of doing such things, is worthy of eternal death. What we deserve for such things is the suffering eternal torment in the Lake of Fire, where the worm does not die and the fire does not go out. What we deserve it to be like the rich man who begs father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and place it on our tongue only to be refused.
But Jesus has delivered you from that. Instead he has transferred you from the kingdom of darkness into his marvelous kingdom of light. He has removed the veil of death that deceived us and given us sight into the true will of God and his great love for us. Before we thought freedom was licentiousness but that was bondage to sin. Now we know freedom in Christ Jesus is showing love to our neighbor and to our enemies.
The Lord Jesus Christ has removed you from the wrath of God. Your trespasses and iniquities stood between you and the Father. But now by the shedding of his blood on the cross your Father in heaven no longer counts your trespasses against you. You have been reconciled to God the Father. He is at peace with you.
You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Now through faith in Jesus and his work on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, you have received eternal life. Death cannot touch you. You will not feel the sting of death nor experience the taste of death or its horrors. Eternal life has been given you freely in Christ and is now your present possession. Physical death is merely a portal now to see your Lord and live in his presence.
So now rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ always for what he has done for you. And be gentle with others for the Lord is at hand. His return is immanent. He was gentle with you. Go and do likewise.
Almighty God and Father, you sent your Son Jesus Christ into the world to save the world through his innocent suffering and death. Grant us faith and your Holy Spirit that we may believe this and rejoice in Christ always at all times. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.