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Rejoice

by Jerry Ousley  
1/02/2015 / Christian Living

Man was I happy! It was the last day of my commitment to the U.S. Army. Of course I had volunteered and it had been my choice to enter the Army but it had not been all that I had imagined it to be. I had joined out of necessity because it was in the early 80's and jobs were scarce. I needed a job badly and so I joined up. But I had also chosen to be a chaplain's assistant thinking that I would be, in a way, working full time in ministry. What I hadn't realized was that you were just another glorified Joe. Yes, I had administrative duties and I assisted the chaplain in any way that I was required. But had conflict broken out and I had been sent into battle I would have been assigned basically as a body guard to a chaplain. I would have to do the duties of any other soldier. And, had they not needed me to accompany a chaplain the Army could make the decision to assign me as a regular soldier.

Don't get me wrong; I had signed up for this and had a conflict broken out during my hitch I would not have shirked my duty. But frankly, I was relieved that it never came to that. I had fulfilled my three years and had packed my things looking forward to going home, not just for a weekend but for the endurance. I rejoiced and had no qualms about letting others know it.

Another key in being a successful Christian and in having a good attitude is to rejoice. The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!" This is a lot like being thankful. We have said that we are to always be thankful. Even when tragedy strikes we are to be thankful, not in the tragedy but because the Lord will bring us through it. Rejoicing is a lot like that too. It doesn't say that we rejoice just when we are happy, or things are going our way, or we have experienced good fortune, but we are to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS.

Going back to my military experience, what if a war or conflict had broken out? Technically my contract of service was for a total of six years. I was to spend three years on active duty and three years in the Ready Reserves. That meant two things: First had a war or conflict broken out they could have said, "Tough luck Ousley. Even though your three years of active duty is up, we need you. You still have three years to go in the Ready Reserves and guess what we're ready!" I would have had to stay on active duty at least until those remaining three years were up! Second, even after ending my three years of active duty, had something cropped up during my three years in the Ready Reserves, I could have been called back to active duty and I would have had no choice in the matter. Neither of those things happened. But if they had according to the Bible, I still was required to rejoice.

I've recently used the example of Paul and Silas but I'd like to refer to it again. Remember the story? They had wanted to go deeper into Asia. But during a vision Paul saw a man calling for them to instead go into Macedonia, a part of Greece. They were obedient and came to the city of Philippi. After obeying the Lord you'd think that they would have met with great success. Instead, after being there only a short time they found themselves beaten and in prison because they had cast a demon from a slave girl who had been used in divination to bring profit to her owner. With their backs sore and bleeding, their hands and feet in stocks, and locked away in the inner part of the prison, it would have seemed that God had let them down. But the Bible tells us in Acts 16 that even in this deplorable condition, they were found singing praises to God at midnight. In other words, they were rejoicing. They weren't asking for deliverance as far as the narrative goes, but God sent an earthquake that freed them as well as all the other prisoners from the stocks and opened the jail doors. Did they run and escape? No; we are told that when the keeper of the prison was about to take his own life thinking that all the prisoners had escaped and he was going to have to be executed anyway, Paul cried out to him telling him that all were still there. The man, in short, tended their wounds and was saved that night. See what rejoicing in the Lord despite circumstances can do? Rejoicing always is so important that Paul repeated it: "Again, I say to you, rejoice!" So find the good in every situation and rejoice!

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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