117 - Rejoicing In The Lord

Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

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We rejoice, giving thanks to God for His indescribable gift. And yet, at the same time, we find it difficult to fully express with words what God has done for us. We experience a joy welling up from deep within, our only true response to what He has created, this new spiritual life we now have in Christ. It is not as the world rejoices, over circumstances that shift, but rejoicing in the unchanging and unfading beauty of being in the Lord. His blessings, His promises, what He has done in and through us, what He has now made us through His Son, transcend all. Our hearts are elated with the notion that what we hold within our hands represents God's great love for us. Just as He created the beauty of the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, He has, with intricate forethought, fashioned something far more lovely for us to experience and enjoy, our new life in Christ.

Rejoicing in the Lord does not precede our acknowledging what it is we have to rejoice over. At its essence, it is an overflow of the heart, seeing clearly what we now possess. The pathway to rejoicing in the Lord is awakening to the grandness of God and our true life through His Son. It is a call to see the eternal reality we have to live out each day. It is heart service, a prevailing consciousness of God and what He has done. Realizing and acknowledging with deep, heartfelt awareness this grandness is the influencing factor in our rejoicing in the Lord.

Our perspective shifts from the transient things of this world, from which there is no lasting joy, to an ever-present and eternal joy. We can rejoice always because there is no end to the goodness we have received and are yet to receive. God has already blessed us far beyond all we could possibly ask or imagine. Even so, we spend much of our time waiting and hoping for more. We struggle with contentment, not recognizing how bountifully we have been blessed. Not the blessings of this world, which never truly satisfy, but our spiritual blessings, which are soul satisfying, fulfilling our deepest hopes and desires.

We rejoice in the Lord that we are His new creations, no longer to look at ourselves from a worldly point of view. No longer as sinners, that old vantage point, but as we truly are, His saints and His priests. Recreated as spiritually holy, righteous, and pure due to Christ living in us. Through this renewing of our minds, our lives, this walk in the body, are changed, transformed to align with who He has made us. We are washed clean by Christ's blood as we walk in the light of who we are, who He has made us, and the new eternal reality we have in Him. We have been given a clear conscience before God, set free, no longer living with the constant reminder of our sinfulness. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, a new perspective transcending a worldly reality, hidden in Christ till He appears again. We await our new heavenly home, our true future, the joy set before us.

We rejoice in this, our new consciousness, our blessed reality in Christ. Before we experienced the saving grace of God, we were in a state of longing, hoping to receive just a portion of what we now experience in Christ. We longed for love and acceptance, to see and to be seen in the light of something far greater. We hoped for salvation, to be lifted out of our pit of despair. We have been brought into a new and glorious light, illuminating our true essence before God, as His children, as His new creation. I pray we have the eyes to see, the mind to grasp, and the heart to acknowledge just what we now possess through Christ. A life freely given, to live freely, to give freely, and to always rejoice in.