Message by Larry Thacker Jr from November 24, “A Choice to Rejoice”
Joy is one of those words that gets loaded with layers of meaning when it gets run through the Christianese dictionary. We’ll say things like, “You may not always be happy, but you can always have joy.” What? When I have taught on this in the past, I have added to the pile by telling you that you can and must choose to rejoice! What does that even mean? We can certainly manufacture joyous expressions, but how can we change what we’re feeling inside?
I do believe that we can take control of what we feel, but it isn’t automatic. It takes discipline, and I’m still learning. The joy comes as we draw closer to the Lord and He becomes our source. There is no passage of scripture that I can readily point to that sets forth Joy as an objective and gives you a set of instructions for attaining it, but the whole Bible leads you to Jesus, and that is where the joy comes from.
Our God is good. He is not like the Pharaoh of Egypt, commanding that the Israelites do the work without giving them the resources to do it and then punishing them for failure. If he tells us to do something, He will give us the means to obey. So if he tells us to rejoice, to celebrate, always, it is possible for us to live that way.
It does not mean that we should never have “negative” emotions. Jesus Himself experienced grief, and even anger. We are made in God’s image, and he experiences these things. It does mean that we can choose to rejoice in the Lord even in the tough times, knowing that He is good and that He is always working for our good.
As Paul wraps up his first letter to the church in Thessalonica, he gives a series of simple instructions which taken together will help us to grow and bring us to a place where we can truly observe the first of them, “Rejoice always.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24)
