My excuses for not “rejoicing always” haven’t just been circumstantial. I used to let my natural personality dictate my worship by saying things like, “Oh, I’m an introvert,” or “I’m not really an emotional person.”
But, worship is designed to take you out of this natural world and make you fully aware of your Kingdom reality.
Do you come to God guarded? Do you struggle to rejoice?
Maybe like me, you have also tried to excuse yourself out of fully engaging in worship by telling God, “This is not how you made me.”
The Lord says, “In worship, I’m making you like Me.”
Transcript
Today, we are going to take a “Posture of Peace” by always rejoicing, even when we don’t always want to rejoice.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump to remind you, God is with you in everything. Together, we’re going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
Yesterday, I shared 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 that says, “Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:4 reiterates this truth, it says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice.” So just to clarify, when are we supposed to rejoice? Always. What are we supposed to be rejoicing about? The Lord. And I probably could just end the episode here today and tie it off, but Paul had more to say, he said, “Again, I will say rejoice.” Now, honestly, sometimes I wonder if Paul repeated himself here because he was anticipating all of my excuses. You know, my excuses for not rejoicing always haven’t just been circumstantial. I used to let my natural personality dictate my worship, specifically the worship expression of rejoicing. I excused myself from rejoicing so many times by saying things like, “Well, I’m an introvert,” or, “I’m just a very practical person, I’m not really emotional, I’m not really an overly joyful or expressive person.” But worship is designed to take you out of this natural world, and make you aware of your kingdom reality.
What about you? Do you come to God guarded, or do you struggle to rejoice, maybe not just always, but anytime? Have you ever tried to excuse yourself out of fully engaging in worship by telling God, this is not how you made me? The Lord says, “In worship, I’m making you like me.” In worship, you are engaging with who He is, His thoughts, His perspective, His nature, and He is the most joyful being ever. Joy is in your kingdom DNA. Lean into this truth today. You always have something to rejoice about: who the Lord is. If the world has told you otherwise, if you have told yourself otherwise, it’s time to embrace that truth, it’s time to know that truth.
Knowing, experiencing the truth will set you free. So I had to stop making excuses, I had to put rejoicing always into practice by starting to rejoice. And here’s what I’m learning: rejoicing is expressed in every part of your being, it is spiritual, it is mental, it is emotional, and it is physical. So when I rejoice, I am aligning all of me with the truth, and it is transforming me. What started out as me making a joyful noise in the car by myself, in the safety of isolation, has developed into lots of laughter and joy in my home, and it’s starting to overflow into my relationships, in my encounters with other people. I have been strengthened. I find myself less bothered, less frustrated, less intimidated. And rejoicing is becoming less of a practice, and more of a lifestyle. And I don’t feel violated like I thought I would be. In fact, I feel more myself than ever before. And of course I do, because what God says is the truest thing about me. What God says is the truest thing about you. I’ve just decided I want to be aligned with the truth always, so I am always rejoicing.
The promise of “Perfect Peace” is found in Isaiah 26:3. In Hebrew it is shalom shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus. You are a living testimony of Jesus’s ultimate win with every step you take today, you’re putting Jesus’s victory on display and satan’s defeat on replay.