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Rejoice?

Lately I've been thinking about God's command to rejoice. To rejoice isn't a magical gift God zaps into you once you become a Christian; it's a virtue that is learned and that lesson can be painful. Yes, painful. You see the command to rejoice in Philippians 4:4 is not a command to be happy when you have a good job, kind family, and lots of sleep (though you should rejoice in those blessings) it's a command first and foremost to rejoice in the Lord and what better way to learn to rejoice in Him and His character than when He has taken everything else away?

I ask myself if all I had was God, would I be happy? If I could choose a wonderful earthly life and then go to heaven and there be no God, or if I suffer all my days and have fellowship with God, which would I choose?

Moses told God that if He did not go with them on their journey then he didn't want to go (Exodus 33). What about you? Will you praise God in the storm? Will you praise Him when you dance? Will you live each day with the knowledge that if God does not go with you, there's no point to go at all?

When it's all been said and done, God alone is perfectly good, holy, just, right, beautiful, wonderful, loving, fair, kind, and wise. Don't believe the lie that there is nothing to rejoice about because God is  and God does not change. You will never run out of things to rejoice in if you spend the rest of your days rejoicing in His character alone.

"Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2

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