When Should I Rejoice?

Php 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."

The word "Rejoice" literally means to be happy, to take delight in, to be full of cheer.  When we look at many Christians we would think they were the chief participant at a lemon chewing contest.  When and why should we rejoice in our Christian lives?  Paul was commanding the believers at Philippi to rejoice always.  There was never a time that the Christians shouldn't be rejoicing in their Lord.  I'm sure you've discovered as I have that it's easy to rejoice in the good times when God's blessings are falling like the dew from Heaven.  When we're on the mountain top and everything is going our way how easy it is to praise our God and rejoice in the fact that we are His children.

What should we do when the dark days come?  The valley experiences, when there is trouble seemingly on every hand?  When we're tempted to crawl into bed and pull the covers over our head and never re-emerge.  What does the Bible say we should do in those grim circumstances?  We find our answer in the same verse.  REJOICE IN THE LORD  ALWAY!  One of  the greatest lessons I've ever learned in my Christan life is that God always does what is best for us.  The Book of James tells us we shouldn't be surprised when trials comes to pass in our lives.  God permits those times of testing for a purpose.  God's purpose is to strengthen us in our walk and our reliance upon Him.  God uses trials  to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We should rejoice that God loves us enough to teach us the hard lessons, to fashion us to become like His dear Son, Jesus Christ.  God understood that the Philippians would ask this same questions about times of trial and testing so He reiterated the command twice.  "And again I say, Rejoice".

Rejoice in God in times of feast and famine understanding that God always allows everything to happen in our lives for our good.  Sometime we don't understand why God is doing something, but we can always trust Him.  He loves us with an unconditional love.