Rejoice always?

The OP is about rejoicing. Paul says rejoice in the Lord. Then he adds again that he says to rejoice. This kind of deliberate insistence implies that the act of rejoicing in the Lord is like going against the trend of things. To rejoice in the Lord is like a salmon fish swimming against the downward current of the stream.

We are creature how so usually walk and have our attitudes by what we see. We intuitively doubt God's word. So to rejoice in Christ is really to deny the self. It is to deny the anxious unbelieving self to enjoy Christ. Christ, to the Christians is near. He is not afar off. He is near and available and indwelling. Therefore we Christians should not walk by sight but walk by faith in this victorious One who lives within us.

In fact in the same epistle Paul says that the Lord is near.

" Let your forbearance be known to all men. The Lord is near." (Phil. 4:5)

Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus manifests one's forbearance. And forbearance is perhaps the most important virtue to a Christian to manifest to the world.

Forbearance in the "Christian dictionary" is a divine ability to be happy with less than your due. You feel you are owed this much. But you end up with less than what you naturally feel you are owed by the world. Forbearance is to be joyful with less than your due because you have the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ warned all of His disciples that they WILL have have tribulation in the world. But He is victorious over all that the world can throw against the Christian. And He lives within as the Spirit of Christ.

" These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

So we who believe in Christ can "rejoice in the Lord". We can manifest forbearance to the world being joyful in Christ with less than our due. We can overcome the world because the One greater than the world lives in us.

" You are of God, little children; and you have overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)

Praise the victorious resurrected and indwelling Lord Jesus!

Originally posted by sonship
The OP is about rejoicing. Paul says rejoice in the Lord. Then he adds again that he says to rejoice. This kind of deliberate insistence implies that to rejoicing in the Lord is like going against the trend of things. To rejoice in the Lord is like a salmon fish swimming against the downward current of the stream.

We are creature how so usually wa ...[text shortened]... ld." (1 John 4:4) [/quote]

Praise the victorious resurrected and indwelling Lord Jesus![/b]

I agree Jesus is our Lord and with God's Spirit teaching us and guiding us, we are where we belong and will be doing what needs done.

Originally posted by KellyJay
I agree Jesus is our Lord and with God's Spirit teaching us and guiding us, we are where we belong and will be doing what needs done.

Amen.

If you can rejoice in the Lord in all your circumstances, I think you will be an overcomer.

If you can give thanks to God in your difficult situations as a habit, I think you will be an overcomer ready to reign with Christ at His return. That is my opinion.

In the song "Blessed assurance" the hymn writer aptly says that giving thanks to His Savior all the day long is "Perfect Submission". I think I must have to agree with this old classic Christian hymn.

If a Christian can, in spite of his circumstances, (barring of course intentional sinning), he is showing that he trusts in God. He is in submission to God's sovereign arrangement.

Rejoice always is not a small matter.

Originally posted by KellyJay
Makes what okay? We screw ourselves all the time taking sides against one another,
and the two party system demands that.

Never mind that man, the GOP is worser! 😲

Originally posted by whodey
Never mind that man, the GOP is worser! 😲

RNC or DNC two sides of the same coin, IMO.

Originally posted by sonship
Amen.

If you can rejoice in the Lord in all your circumstances, I think you will be an overcomer.

If you can give thanks to God in your difficult situations as a habit, I think you will be an overcomer ready to reign with Christ at His return. That is my opinion.

In the song "Blessed assurance" the hymn writer aptly says that giving thanks to His ...[text shortened]... is in submission to God's sovereign arrangement.

[b]Rejoice always is not a small matter.[/b]

Edited:

If a Christian can [ rejoice in the Lord ], in spite of his circumstances, (barring of course intentional sinning), he is showing that he trusts in God. He is in submission to God's sovereign arrangement.

This rejoicing is not the exercise of "positive thinking" in a mere psychological way. It is saying "No" to the fallen man of unbelief, anxiety, un-thankfulness, and doubt, and saying "Yes" to God in trust. This releases great grace into a man's being because God is faithful.

This denial of the fallen man by rejoicing in the Lord also must mean "the sacrifice of praise". Because it seems that it "costs" something for us to go against our natural tendency to trust God in praise and thanksgiving.

" Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is the fruit of lips confessing His name." (Hebrews 13:15)