Day 3 - Week 67 - 1 Thessalonians 5:16 - "Rejoice always."

I love typing out the "Title" this week because I have no qualms that I will be able to type the verse out without having to glance back one little bit!  Just those sweet two words, "Rejoice always."  But as we discussed, it's the "always" that makes this directive tougher than it sounds. 

I love this paragraph from "100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart" by Robert J. Morgan,

There's no excuse for not memorizing this verse.  It's the shortest in the Bible.  As a child, I was told that John 11:35 ("Jesus wept.") was the Bible's smallest verse.  That is the shortest verse in the English Bible.  But in the Greek New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 is even shorter.  In a sense we have two shortest verses in the Bible.  In the Greek, it is "Rejoice always," and in our English Bible, it's "Jesus wept."  Quite a contrast, isn't it---weeping and rejoicing?  But how appropriate!  Because Jesus wept, we can rejoice.  Because He bears our sorrows, we experience His joy.

Isn't that an amazing thing to note!  Two two-word verses that when you put them side-by-side have such a dramatic effect!  For it is only because of Jesus that we have cause for true joy.

Oh yes, people who have not come to know the gift of Jesus and have not experienced His presence in their lives have moments of happiness and what I would call "pseudo-joy" in this life.  Anyone who experiences the birth of a child, the view of a glorious sunset, the deep love of another person...these are moments of joy for any person (and I believe they are all gifts of God given to all that all may see His goodness).

But a joy that defies justification...a joy that is present even when circumstances are less than pleasant...a joy that, despite it all, keeps a person smiling and confident when everything is less than certain, I believe that kind of true, deep, abiding joy only comes when you have such a trust in a loving Heavenly Father, in the sacrificial gift of His obedient Son, and in the active and living presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, that you have no reason to do anything else in life but rejoice!

I'm thinking of just such an attitude displayed by a friend of mine, Misty Cooke.  When her daughter was in a tragic car accident two years ago (the 2nd anniversary was this week, June 14), it looked like Hayden did not have a chance.  Horrific head injury required a craniotomy, followed by weeks spent in a coma.  When I visited Misty at the ICU, she was not falling apart.  She was not in pieces.  She did not look like a wreck.  She was calm, composed and beautiful.  Was this because she was denying the seriousness of what was going on with her sweet 16 year old daughter?  No, it was because she was affirming her faith in God, her confidence that her daughter's life was in His hands. 

So, so gratefully, God restored Hayden to a full life.  She just graduated from high school and will start college in the fall to pursue a degree in nursing.  Both Misty and Hayden have shared wonderful words of testimony as to how God has blessed their lives.  I am so thankful that they knew God's joy in the middle of the storm!

Rejoice always!  Even when it's tough!