Rejoice in the Lord Always

Rejoice in the Lord

Rejoice In The Lord - The St. Johns Childrens Cho

Haven't had the opportunity to update the blog with something that the Lord had ministered in to heart these couple of weeks. For me, I make it a point to share whenever I am being blessed by the Lord and learnt something from Him, both to remind myself and also hoping that as I pen it down, it would be a blessing to many others.

The Inevitable Trials in Life
Recently, I have been thinking about circumstances that we face and how we respond. It makes me wonder if being a Christian indeed would rid us of all trials and inevitably, the answer is no, but I have come to realise that the difference is that, being a Christian, we are assured that God is in our lives and He knows and have His plans for us, that to me is peace and hope.

I am reminded in the book of James how it was mentioned that we consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds and its role in helping us in maturity. The word used here is "whenever" and not "if", pointing to how trials are inevitable even in the lives of Christians. So anyone who thinks that Christians are "exempted" from the trials of life, then think again. But, like I have learnt through the big and small trials of my life, the difference is God and knowing that He sees and everything is in His hands.

Remembering We Are Significant
At Thursday devotion last week at work, we saw a presentation on the size of the planet earth as compared to the sun and eventually, the galaxy. We saw that, as compared to the galaxy, we and the planet earth are minute in scale. But yet, God cares for us so much that He did his work on the cross.

Someone has ever said, the next time we face a trial, instead of calling out "Oh God, we have a big problem!", call out "Problem, we have a big GOD!".

Remembering God is the Almighty and Sovereign God
Indeed, everything is in God's hands and nothing is too difficult for God as the bible reminds us in Luke 1:37 "For nothing is impossible with God."

However, God is still a sovereign God and has His sovereign will. In His love for us as the heavenly Father, He knows what's best and sometimes says "Yes", "Not Yet" or "No" to us. Perhaps, God has His plans for all His people and is not a genie who grants everyone's wishes. He is the sovereign God with His sovereign will for everyone.

Choosing to Rejoice & Receiving The Peace of God
Instead, Paul reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

At our Tuesday devotion last week, as everyone shared, I felt spoken to and prompted to share from Philippians 4:4-7 ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

God shows us that He is a big God and having God in our lives, we can have the peace to say that God knows every single struggle and challenges we are facing and we can rejoice in the fact that He is in your life and we can pray to Him and submit to Him areas which we need His touch.

At the devotion session that just past on Thursday, I heard of a testimony of a person with a tough life; someone who was almost aborted, someone who was born to divorcee, someone whose mum is an alcoholic and threatened to kill her every night, someone who was bullied by her peers, someone who lost her mother subsequently and who had to work hard to put herself through studies, failing many years. But today, we hear the testimony of this person who gave testimony to how God had helped her to pull through it all, the peace of God which transcend all understanding and watched over her as she believes that God has His plans for her.

Maybe, to many of us, we may not have as dramatic a life story or we may even have. But all in all, we are reminded that God is always in control. To many of us, this may sound like something cliche and something easy to preach but I speak from experience after have seen God at work in my life that He is real and He does have His plans for us... sometimes, we may not understand it all but years later when we look back, we see how things worked out.

When I was in a down moment about 2 years back in ministry, facing all kinds of perceived rejection. I lamented to God. But God ministered to me through Don Moen and his song, "I Will Sing". Today, I will still sometimes lament, but after seeing how God had delivered me time and again (though sometimes not immediate), I choose to rejoice and sing unto Him.

To be a Blessing
While we may not be in the best of best of situations, but we can be thankful each day for what we are blessed in big and small ways and we can in turn bless others as God has blessed us.

In the words of Gary Haugen at the Global Leadership Summit last year, he challenged and ask Christian leaders, "Why have we been given so much when there are so much suffering in other parts of the world?" The answer, God loves the world and we can be the answer to others suffering, through blessing others with the love of God through prayer, donations or even just showing care and concern.

Thank God for blessings in our lives but don't stop there. Be a blessing so others can be impacted and also praise God for the blessing they received:

Matthew 5:14-16
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

We have the choice