Rejoice Always!

I want to share something I read this morning in a devotional by Ann Voskamp.  I have found this truth in my own experience, but she has given it words.  And reading them just really hit me.  I hope you get something from them too. :)

 

The following are excerpts from Ann Voskamp, On Thousand Gifts Devotional: Joyous Grace:

 

"Dear brothers and sisters, when trouble comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy." 

James 1:2 NLT

 

Can we really expect joy at all times?

 

"Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!"  Phil. 4:4

 

I may feel disappointment and the despair may flood high, but to give thanks is an action and rejoice is a verb and these are not mere pulsing emotions.  While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things because He knows that the feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving.

 

Joy doesn't negate all other emotions - joy transcends all other emotions. 

 

Only self can kill joy.

 

The demanding of my own will is the singular force that smothers out joy. 

 

Dare I ask what I think I deserve?  A life with no discomfort, no inconvenience?  What do I really deserve?  God does not give rights but He imparts responsibilities - inviting us to respond to His love-gifts.  Proudly refusing to accept this moment, dismissing it as no gift at all, I refuse God.

 

Joy - it's always obedience.

 

Thy will be done.  This is the way the self dies.

 

I humbly open my hand to release my will to receive His...I accept the gift of now as it is - accept God - for I can't be receptive to God unless I receive what He gives.

 

Today, Lord, open my hand to joy in surrendered obedience.

My thoughts:

 

As I read this, many thoughts came to mind, but the example I want to share is about marriage.  I often hear people say they married the wrong person.  I say, the right person is the one you are married to.  Maybe you did not choose as wisely as you could have, but God's will is not that we find the "right" person (put in any circumstance here, job, etc.).  God's will is that we be sanctified and live as Christ lives.  Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and give his life.  The answer isn't who our spouse is, but our surrender to who our God is.

 

I pray that the Holy Spirit will give us eyes to see His many gifts of grace and that in choosing to give thanks and obey, we will find the joy He promises.  Let us pray for our own marriages and those around us.