Rejoice All the Time

Rejoice All the Time “Always be joyful. Always keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. “(I Thessalonians 5:16–18, The Living Bible) A life in Christ is something that is very amazing and wonderful. How can that happen? At the moment we first met Lord Jesus we entered into a spiritual battle in our lives. We will face various pressures and struggles in our personal problems, economic, family, job and even in our ministry. Isn’t that amazing? God is building up His children to become someone with “quality” in Him, someone that is “strong”, not someone that is whining, weak or easily defeated. God is training us to fight in the war and become the winner, because there is no victory without a war and no champion without a competition!! The devils are our main enemies in the spiritual war. He will always try to defeat us through many kinds of pressures and struggles we are going through. In what ways do the devils start to defeat us? They steal the joy in our hearts. Most of the time when we are undergoing problems, we find it hard to be joyful. We can rejoice when the things around us work smoothly… But the Word of God commands us to rejoice all the time, no matter what happens at the moment. Why does God order us to be joyful all the time? It is because He knows that when we loose our joy we will loose our strength. We will become weak and starts to be defeated. The Word of God says, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” (Nehemiah 8:11). This is so true. The research that was done by many experts found out that a depression and worries condition will hinder the flow of hydrochloric acid that helps to enlarge the veins, as the result the blood flow decrease and the body becomes weak. On the contrary, a happy and laughing condition is believed to be able to stimulate endorphins hormone to come out, it is chemical substance that can relieve pain naturally and useful to make the blood flows smoothly so that the body will be healthier and stronger. Is it possible for a Christian to rejoice all the time? Of course it is POSSIBLE, do you know why? It is because the source of our joy is not the condition or circumstances around us, but it is CHRIST who is inside us. That is why we shouldn’t be afraid and worry to face all kinds of problems in our lives. In spite of that, we have to face it bravely and joyfully, because Jesus, who is the source of our joy, is always with us, even in the most difficult situation. He is always present to help us at the right time. God’s presence is more than enough to make us continually feel joyful and grateful. Remember that all things that happen in our lives in His permission are to bring goodness, in order that we will be closer to Him and more persistent in our fight of faith, until we will be more like Him.