Rejoice Always

“Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.” – Philippians‬ ‭4:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The word “joy” appears over 150 times in the bible and the word “rejoice” (meaning to have joy) around 200 times – not to mention all the other variations like “joyful”, “joyfully”, “joyous”. Clearly God puts a great emphasis on the importance of feeling and expressing joy.

“Let the righteous…rejoice exceedingly.” — Psalms 68:3

God desires that we serve Him “with joy and gladness of heart” (Deuteronomy 28:47).

First things first, there is a big difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is an emotion, a feeling experienced because of something good happening. “Hap” means chance and is the root of the words happen, hapless, haphazard and happenstance. Happiness is fickle and subject to the circumstances around us.

But true joy, biblical joy, is much more than something we feel by chance. It is the deep, foundational, soul-satisfying contentment that we experience when we build a relationship with the one who is the source of joy (Galatians 5:22-23). It comes from being content with whatever we have, whether we have almost nothing or everything (Philippians 4:11-13).

1 Peter 1:8-9 teaches us that it is through faith, even when we cannot see God at work, we are filled with “an inexpressible and glorious joy”. Our joy comes from God himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit and his glorious hope (Romans 5:13). As we develop our relationship with God, as we grow in faith and hope for things to come, as we spend more time in his presence, we will experience fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

True joy is developed through relationship with Jesus, through fixing our eyes on him, spending time with him, serving for him and enduring through him (Acts 20:35; Rom. 5:3-11; Phil. 4:13). It is only then that we are able to remain joyful even when we face trials, seeing them as opportunities to develop endurance and be refined, rather than losing our joy in the midst of them. It’s not easy, but with God all things are possible.