Rejoice in the lord always?

"Rejoice in the LORD always, again I say, rejoice."     ~Phillipians 4:4


Although it is one of my favorites, this verse has always made me a bit uncomfortable.

Always rejoice? 

How, Lord?

How can I possibly rejoice when I've just loss someone so precious to me, whom I loved so dearly?

Because the Creator of the universe loves ME enough to send His Son to die to redeem me, 

I can rejoice

 even while suffering the emptiness of loss.

When I'm wounded and bleeding from the knife of a trusted friend, how can I rejoice?

Because the Son of Man, my Saviour, loves me enough to say YES to the betrayal of His friends, to the abuse and cruelty of evil men; YES to death on the cross

I can rejoice

 despite the bloody wounds of my own.

When my world has been turned upside-down by financial loss, illness, accident, neglect or abandonment . . . rejoice?

Yes.

Because a price so exorbitant, which I could never pay, was paid for me. Because a debt I owe has been wiped away; because a vigilant Shepherd watches over me day and night

I can rejoice

even while my life here below rocks and churns and crashes and burns

I can rejoice.

Always.

one thousand gifts

I am reading a truly life-changing book and I want to recommend it to you. 

The author states some pretty obvious facts about God and faith, but she is able to dig so deeply into them that it is like seeing them for the first time. We've all heard about keeping a gratefulness journal, and many of us have kept them. This is the story of where one woman's journaling took her, and how it changed her whole perspective on  life.


                                                      

one thousand gifts by Ann Voskamp

If you only read one book in the new year (I can't imagine it!) consider this one.

THE REFINING PROCESS

He is tender and loving and patient with me,

While He cleanses my heart of its dross,

But "there's no condemnation"-- 

I know I am free,

For my sins are all nailed to the cross.

                                               from the hymn Nailed to the Cross

Cleansing my heart of its dross is a reference to the refining process that silver and gold must go through- to go from its natural, rough, impure state to a state of refined purity and beauty and high value.

Psalm 66:10 says For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined.

To think that God is actively involved in the refining process of my life is both humbling and exciting!

I  put a lot of pressure on myself to do this myself and then I am reminded by verses such as these that it is God working the process!  What a relief!! Of course I must be willing to submit to His hand in this process, and that is the hard part. Because refining requires heat and pressure- neither of which are comfortable.

The raw metal must be heated to a very high temperature for the dross (impurities) to be removed.

Psalm 66 continues the thought:

You brought us into the net;

You laid affliction on our backs.

You have caused men to ride over our heads;

We went through fire

and through water;

But You brought is out to rich fulfillment.

Submitting to the process, I believe, means trusting God through the difficult times. Times when we are fearful, doubting, struggling, suffering because of our own sins or the sins of others.

It means keep on keepin' on!

Keep reading His Word- IT IS YOUR FOOD-YOUR SUSTENANCE.

Keep praying- it is your communication with your Savior. 

Keep assembling with your brothers and sisters- there is strength here!

Keep looking for the value in your suffering-how you are learning to lean upon the LORD.

Remember He said I will never leave you nor forsake you!

I am confident that He truly IS always THERE. 

My feeling that He may be distant or disinterested is simply that:

my feeling. Nothing more.

God still has A LOT of work to do in refining me, but I'm so glad that He loves each one of us enough to do it.

And HE does all things well.

purification's juicy effect

". . .looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works"  Titus 2:14

 Even if these were the only words a person ever  heard about Jesus, wouldn't the

 IMMENSE LOVE

 expressed in this passage compel them to respond to our amazing Savior?

 

 

What stands between lawless deeds and zealous good works in this verse is purification.

The ongoing, loving purification of the blood of Christ compels me to try to do better.

To put the lawless deeds behind and eagerly, willingly, zealously serve such a

 

 LOVING SAVIOR

 

 

 

with all the good works I can squeeze into my day!

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART

Jesus includes the condition of having a pure/clean heart in the Beatitudes:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Like many Bible verses over the years, my initial understanding of this verse, I think, was not complete or as in depth as it later became. It's that beautiful aspect of the Word being living and active that makes it exciting and rich and meaningful to dig into.

Anyway, I used to assume that the seeing of God here, was after death- in heaven.  But it now occurs to me that we can see  God even while living on this earth. 

David said in Psalm 141:8 my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord.

He is also the one who said create in me a clean heart, O GOD in Psalm 51:10.

It seems that a pure heart produces pure vision.

If my heart is full of those selfish little "demons" that like to live there, my spiritual vision is obscured. I can only see through a lens which has become clouded, blurry and warped- God, and all His goodness, is not visible through this lens.

Small children, I believe, have a "clear" lens with which to see GOD. Why? Because they still have pure hearts. 

So. My quest for a completely pure heart so that my ZEAL is renewed brings an added benefit:

SEEING GOD

Not just later, in heaven. But NOW. In this life.

WOW.

Create in me a clean heart, O God

At first my theme for 2014 was to be about ZEAL . . .  re-energizing.

Bur as I read verses in the Bible on the subject I began to realize there was something that must come BEFORE zeal:

A CLEANSING OF THE HEART

As with all  issues which impede our service to our Lord, a lack of zeal is really a HEART issue.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."  Psalm 51:10

Psalm 51 is David's prayer of repentance after he was confronted with his great sin by Nathan the prophet.

He prays for forgiveness and for a right spirit. And rightly so. His sin was great.

But having a "wrong spirit" can also be the result of someone sinning against us.

 "Uncleanness" can dwell in the heart of the offended as well as the offender. 

Having once swept our hearts clean of  bitterness, we turn around

and there it is again;

 uninvited and unwelcome.

So, exploring what the Bible says about cleansing the heart will be the subject which will then, hopefully, lead into the second part of David's prayer:

RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME.

It is my goal to become more zealous, more productive and more useful for my Lord in His kingdom and I believe this is where it starts.