Rejoice When I Am Sad

Rejoicing When We Are Sad

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice part 2

How do we rejoice when we have reason to be so very sad? Did not Jesus spend all night in prayer at times because His heart was so heavy. Yes! But that was between Jesus and His Father. It was not for the public to see.

When I first read Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” I thought that Jesus was asking us to be hypocritical. That we should pretend to be what we are not. I wondered why anyone would go in a closet to pray with all of the mothballs my mother had there.

Why should we wash our face and comb our hair and hide our hurts? Unhappy faces seem to attract unhappy faces, while happy faces attract happy faces. We must live in the three words, in the Lord, instead of in the world. When we think of what God has done for us and what God will yet do for us we can never be sad. Let the world live “under the circumstances” while we live above the circumstances where God dwells.

 If we abide in Him and dwell on Him and His promises we can only know joy, real joy. Let the joy of the Lord be your strength. Learn to “Speak the truth in advance” that is faith. – Dr. Van is a friend of the ministry of America’s Keswick and served this summer as campus Pastor

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 15; Ezekiel 1-2; Hebrews 11:1-19

Dig This Quote: If you don't make up your mind, your unmade mind will unmake you.
Eli E. Stanley Jones

Determined Digging: Level 1: John 11:25-16; Level 2: Matthew 5:1-9

Determined Praying: If you have never had any difficulty in prayer, it is absolutely certain that you have never prayed. – D. Martyn Llyod-Jones