‘he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ 1:6.Here are some reasons for rejoicing in the Lord that Paul has already written to the Philippians, for example in chapter 1: Even if there is nothing else to rejoice in, we can rejoice in him! There are always plenty of reasons-even when our world is falling apart or when we are feeling discouraged … or ill … or anxious. We can ‘rejoice in the Lord’ whatever our circumstances.I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment it is its appointed consummation.Ī good idea when reading the Bible: when it says to do something, do it! So is rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ part of your prayer life, part of your life? Do you do it every day? Are you offering ‘the sacrifice of praise’ that we should ‘continually offer up to God’-that is, ‘the fruit of lips that praise his name’ (Heb 13:15)? In the Bible confession of sin, lament, trust, praise, complaining, sorrow, questioning, wondering, and worship are usually expressed verbally, by the physical action of speaking or singing.Īs CS Lewis put it in his Reflections on the Psalms: We may tend to think that it is the internal attitude which counts: but there is no Biblical reason for doing so. I think Paul wants the Philippians, and God wants us, to actually engage in the physical activity of rejoicing. The command to ‘rejoice’ does not only refer to a merely internal mental attitude, sense of obligation, or feeling.God wants us, to actually engage in the physical activity of rejoicing. I have been feasting on Philippians in recent months, meditating on Paul’s command to, ‘rejoice in the Lord’, found in 3:1-and then intensified in 4:4: ‘rejoice in the Lord always.
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