How do I rejoice in the LORD?

I want to talk to you guys today about a fruit of the Spirit. This fruit is joy. Galatians 5 is where we learn that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness, and temperance, and that there is no law against those things. So, we see then that as we yield to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit that the outcome in our life will be selfless love, a calm rejoice in all of life’s circumstances, freedom from worry, so on and so forth. Today, I wanna talk about joy, because joy has been severly lacking in my walk with God as of recently.

Alright, so, this is all going to be taken out of the book of Philippians. Philippians was written by Paul at a very tumultuous time in his life. He was in the Roman jail. And yet, in spite of all this, we find him encouraging the church at Philippi to “rejoice in the Lord.” The first time in Philippians that we find him using this phrase is the first verse of chapter 3. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” The word finally basically means in conclusion. The rest of the book is about rejoicing in the Lord. One such way of rejoicing in the Lord is forgetting those things which are behind. What do we mean by this?

Forget those things which could become a discouragement to you. In my Christian walk, I recently had a severe fall, a severe backslide, as I had been living in self-righteousness in over a month, and my walk with God was almost non-existant. For almost two weeks I was extremely discouraged about what had happened, because it was consuming my meditations. The events leading up to this falling away, along with the events that took place, and they were all very discouraging to me. The devil continued to bring them to remembrance and I was so weak in the Lord. A smile on my face was almost non-existant, and I had most definitely lost my joy. You see, joy is in spite of your circumstances in life! I had lost my joy! Well, I needed to forget about my past shortcomings, and keep pressing on, keep going, to know Him! Forget about my shortcomings, and run, run the race to reach supremecy in my relationship with Christ, pressing toward the mark for the prize. Chapter 3 is one of my favorite chapters, and I suggest an in-depth study of Philippians 3 by anyone who is struggling with joy, but I also recommend looking at chapter 4, which is where I will be expounding.

In chapter 4, Paul tells us a second time to “rejoice in the Lord,” and the exact phrase he uses is “rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice,” so he has told us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to always be rejoicing while surrounded to the limits by the Lord, and in chapter 4 he gives us another way to do this. Philippians 4 says

Rejoice in the Lord alway: [and] again I say, Rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord [is] at hand.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

So, based on this, I would like to show the way that this happens. He’s telling us to rejoice in the Lord. The word moderation means calmness. Joy is a calm delight. So, as we rejoice in the Lord, then people are going to see our moderation, or our calmness in the face of adversity. How do we have this moderation? Because we are not to be full of care for anything, but still yet in everything we are to come to God humbly, asking and making petition, with thanksgiving. As we take our concerns and place them up to the Father, then we can remove those negative problems and begin to focus on things that are honest, pure, just, lovely, of good report, etc. And so we see here that it’s a perpetual circle that continues. As we rejoice, and place all our cares and concerns upon God, then His peace will guard our hearts (our meditations) and our minds (our information) through Christ. Ya know, I would love to explain this peace to you, but it surpasses all understanding. You’re just gonna have to find it for yourself.

Love you all, and may God be with you. God bless.

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