For the past few days Philippians 4:4 has been on my mind. It says Rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice. But sometimes rejoicing in God can be a hard thing to do especially when we are feeling at our weakest, when we feel depressed and well oppressed at the same time. When we are at our lowest it seems to take everything in us to simply read the Bible or pray to God let alone rejoicing in Him always.
The chapter proceeds to say Dont worry about anything: instead, pray about everything Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. (verse 6). Paul tells us not only do we need to rejoice in the Lord always, but we need to not worry and pray, and then to thank him for everything. Does he want us to thank God for the bad things in life? Thank God for the depression, oppression, cancer, death and more? When we are feeling the feelings we do as humans we find it hard to thank God when we are oppressed. Maybe we don't thank him for the badness we're feeling at the moment. I mean I thank God I went through cancer because I learned so much, but at the time I couldn't see the perverbial light at the end of the tunnel. So when Pauls says thank him for all he has done it is in my opinion that he's saying thank God for the past good and bad he has done since we learn from everything.
As we pray to God telling himthe things we end we should praise him and as verse 4 says Rejoice in the Lord...I repeat rejoice. Hard as it may be we need to rejoice in him and honestly when it seems to hard that's when we should turn to each other. I admit there are times when I feel like crap and don't want to read my Bible, pray and rejoice, but I know when I am with Todd I can see the meaning in rejoicing and in chats though it may seem meaningless to me some scripture have meaning to Todd and vise versa. I think that goes back to a Song of Solomon thing. Understanding each other and yet seeing the verses we both need to read and meditate on, even if it seems meaningless to us in our times of oppression.
So my dear friends: Rejoice in the Lord always...again I say Rejoice. and if you can't call someone who show you the light even if you don't see it right away.
2 comments:
This is one of my most treasured passages. I clung to that at a time of crisis, a major one that beset me a few years ago, and I still value it.
I've enjoyed reading your blog. Mine is http://threeswans.com.au if you want to return the visit. Feel free to comment. If you like Christian poetry, check out "Calvary". Blessings to you. As you honour God, so will He honour you.
Post a Comment