Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
It’s Wednesday morning. I’ve got a full day ahead of me in view of the fact that I have YET to begin my sermon (something I TRY to start on Monday afternoon!). This is in addition to the fact that I am hosting our Renton Gospel Network lunch at Renton Bible today, which means I’ve got to provide a group of men with food of the physical kind, for nourishing the body, and of the spiritual kind, for nourishing the soul. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. I count it a privilege to fellowship with these men. But from the moment I get out of bed, it’s already feeling like a long day. I glance at my email before hopping in the shower only to see this subject line, “We’ve identified an outage affecting your Comcast Business service.” Sure enough, I get to the office and...no internet. Wouldn’t be such a big deal if it weren’t for the fact that EVERYTHING is in the cloud these days. (Sometimes I find myself resonating with the Luddites of the 19th century who feared technology imagining that machines would take over our world! Talk about prophetic.) All this to say, Wednesday started out rough. So, what was the passage which surfaced in my morning devotions? “Be joyful always.” Talk about ironic. There I was doing my morning devotions from home because Comcast was out at church. Let’s just say, I was not a happy camper! Not exactly the ideal mindset as I’m trying to spend time in the Word and in prayer. But as I began to contemplate my less than joyful disposition in the face of Paul’s call to “be joyful always,” it occurred to me just how little it takes to put me in an unhappy frame of reference—the driver in front of me going half the speed limit, overcooked food, cleaning up messes someone else left behind, a broken appliance. It’s amazing how I can allow the most insignificant of things to disrupt my joy. I guess this is why God commands joy. Notice, “be joyful” is in the imperative mood. In other words, it’s not a recommendation, it’s a command. Does that seem odd that God would command us to be joyful? We tend to think of joy as something we cannot affect. Either you’re joyful or you’re not. Can you really make yourself joyful? The issue is compounded by the third word (out of three) in this very short verse—always. (By the way, if John 11:35, “Jesus wept,” is already taken in your pursuit of short verses to memorize, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 is a decent second choice!). Always? Always. At all times. You mean, I’m to be joyful when I spill my coffee? Yep. When I lose my keys? Yep. When I have an argument with a family member? Yep. When sickness makes me miss out on something I really wanted to do? Yep. Always. The whole point is choosing joy consistently regardless of what is going on around you. I get it...that can be an extremely TALL order to fill. Obviously, it’s hard enough when you’re facing serious loss or major trials. But, honestly, it’s often challenging to choose joy even in the midst of the mundane daily frustrations we are all subject to. Maybe it is for this reason that a short verse 16 is followed by an even shorter verse 17, “pray continually.” How else can you choose joy in the midst of life’s frustrations if it is not in prayerful dependence upon God?!? Then, as if the call to “be joyful always” was not enough of a challenge, Paul goes on to instruct us to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” According to Paul, thanksgiving is what God wants for us. Like an earthly father who wants the best for his kids, our heavenly Father wants the best for you and me. And part of God’s best for us is that we choose to see past trials to the unshakable hope and joy we find in Jesus. There is never a time when a follower of Jesus does not have something to be grateful for. If you know God’s promises, you know that to be an understatement. Here’s the thing, Paul is not telling us that we need to be people who are always bubbly, gleeful, cheery. What he is saying is that we, of all people, should be those who are able to find joy even in the darkest of times, and certainly in the face of daily frustrations, because of the unshakable hope we have in Jesus Christ. The great 18th century English preacher, John Wesley, once wrote, “When we first know Christ...then it is that happiness begins; happiness real, solid substantial.” He goes on to write, “Every Christian is happy;...he who is not happy is not a Christian.” Tough words, but there’s a lot of Scripture to back them up. Scripture makes clear that joy is the Christian’s birthright. It also indicates that there will be grief too. But joy wins because we know how this story ends. So, no matter what we are facing, our baseline as those redeemed by Christ, filled with the Spirit, and loved by the Father, is happiness. There are times when it may be harder to find. But for God’s people, we have a joy that nothing, absolutely nothing, in this world can take from us. The trick is, remembering and leaning into that truth.
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Dan GannonDan has ministered at Renton Bible Church, with his wife Debbie, since 2003. Archives
June 2022
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