There is tremendous power in choosing to rejoice in God in the most difficult times of your life. Philippians 4:4 is a key that will unlock the door to a supernatural life of God’s presence and His power. You need this!
00:00 Rejoice in the Lord Always - Paul's words from a Roman prison
1:36 Paul and Silas' Journey to Philippi
4:27 Paul and Silas (beaten and in jail) Choose to Rejoice in God
4:36 God Responds to Paul and Silas’ Faith
6:43 God Uses Adversity for Your Good
7:18 How God Enabled Me to Choose Joy While in Severe Pain
8:11 Activate Your Faith to Overcome Adversity
Philippians 4:4 AMP
Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, take pleasure in Him]; again I will say, rejoice!
Rejoice here simply means to renew your joy in the Lord.
It begins with the decision to choose joy.
You may hear that and reply, “But Dave, you don’t know what I’m going through.“
Maybe you just lost someone you loved and your whole world collapsed.
Or maybe your husband just left you with 3 hungry kids, a stack of bills and he took the only car you have.
Maybe you’re homeless and struggling just to survive another day.
You might be single and lonely, dreading a life spent alone.
Or you might be in great pain physically or emotionally with no hope in sight.
You’re right. I don’t know what you’re going through. But I know that Paul wrote “rejoice in the Lord always” from a Roman prison.
Paul wasn’t writing rhetoric or some pious sentiment. This letter is written to the Philippians. These words would be meaningful to the Philippians. In Philippi, Paul proved we can rejoice in God even in our darkest times.
Paul and Silas in Philippi: Acts 16.
It made no sense. Paul and Silas were where God called them to be, when He told them to be there – all confirmed by Paul’s dream. They were preaching the gospel and had cast a demon out of a girl just as Jesus did.
And the result was were mobbed by a crowd, unjustly arrested, severely flogged and thrown into prison. Chained and put in stocks. They couldn’t even scratch the itching welts on their backs.
That may be like you right now. You may be in the right place, at the right time, doing what God wants you to do, but all hell has come against you. It doesn’t make sense. It isn’t fair. And it just isn’t right!
What you do next will determine what God is able to do through you.
God uses our adversity to to do 2 very important things:
1. set people free from sin and death and restore them to God’s family
2. develop our character – to make us more like Jesus.
What is happening to you make not make sense, may not be fair or just, but God will use it to His glory and for your good.
Romans 8:28 NASB
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose
I wrote some of this in my journal several years ago, on a day when I was in severe physical pain. I wrote that my God-given superpower that day was to choose joy. To delight in God.
I lived for over 10 years with severe pain in my spine that literally crippled me. That pain forced me to return to the U.S. after 15 years in China. That pain derailed my dreams and greatly limited my life.
I woke up every morning in severe pain. After 4 surgeries, I still had crippling pain. It would have been easy to quit, to live the rest of my life as a victim of pain.
But God wouldn’t let me. He showed me that if I would delight in Him, He would lift me above the pain every day. And He did.
But I had to choose joy long before I felt it. But when I made that choice, He made joy my reality. And God opened doors for me to touch lives – including this video.
Activation
I don’t know what you’re facing, it may be something truly horrendous, but this I do know: whatever it is, God is greater. Jesus warned his disciples as he was sending them out into the world, knowing that they would be persecuted and martyred because they shared the truth about Him.
In John 16:33 NIV, Jesus said:
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Your faith in Jesus makes His victory your victory:
1 John 5:4 NASB
For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.
Today by faith you are going to overcome the world. You’re going to overcome your circumstances and everything that the world, every force of darkness can throw at you.
There's something powerful in knowing You and I have a choice!! God gives us the ability to choose!!! Today, choose joy!! Choose to delight in God even in the worst of circumstances. And wait for the earthquake!!