Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Philippians 4:4-5 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
JOY IN JESUS
The events of our lives go up and down, and often our emotions go up and down with them. But there is a joy that is outside the day-to-day events of our lives. It is the joy of being able to call God our Father for Jesus' sake, even to the end of the world.
It is the joy that His resurrection gives us.
This joy is like the outrigger on a canoe that keeps us in balance even in rough waters when the waves seem to hit us from all directions.
Sometimes when things seem to be going our way, we can easily forget this joy and rely on those things. That's like finding ourselves in pleasant water, relying on it to remain so and disconnecting the wing-nuts that fasten the outrigger to the hull of our canoe.
It is a capsize waiting to happen.
Through Paul our Lord reminds us to stay balanced, not to go overboard, but to let our gentleness be apparent to everybody. Realize that if the water is calm for you right now, it will not always be so. Your joy is still in the Lord.
And if the water is rough for you right now, roiling with emotions and uncertainties, troubles or tribulations, there is no need to be wavering from side to side with anxiety. Because He lives, we too shall live, but death shall die!
If Jesus lives, can I be sad?
I know He loves me, and am glad:
Though all the world to me were dead,
Enough Christ lives and is my Head!
