Philippians 3:1

Philippians 3:1: “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.”

I don’t think I do nearly enough rejoicing. It’s so easy to become burdened by all of life’s problems and lose sight of how glorious and awesome our Lord is. Jesus loves us so very much (even to the point of dying on the cross) and He has blessed us in so many ways. And yet, when I’m in the mist of hard times, the thought of praising the Lord is often the farthest thing from my mind.

In fact, when things are going wrong it’s quite easy to start blaming God. After all, we usually expect things to go well for us and so when they don’t we think that God has slipped up somewhere. However, what the Lord promised us was not an easy life but a hard one. Jesus plainly told us that the world hated Him and it would hate us as well. We expect life to treat us fairly, even though God warned us that we would suffer many trials and pains, and when unfair things happen we get upset at God – the very person we should be going to for help and comfort.

We also tend to expect justice to be immediate. All around us people are committing horrible crimes, and yet they seem to get away with it. Nations bomb their citizens and no one does anything about it. Angry mobs seize Christians and murder them, and no one arrests them for it. Yet, God never promised to judge people the instant they sinned; instead – thankfully – God offers space for repentance. God has promised a final day of reckoning, but it comes after death, not before. Justice will be served, but not until the proper time, and the Bible urges us to wait and be patient. (What if God had not waited for us to repent?)

The fact of the matter is that God is a glorious God who is worthy of great praise. He has blessed us with His Son and with the Holy Spirit; He has given us forgiveness, grace, and eternal life, and He has promised us an amazing future that is filled with peace and joy. He is with us in our trials and will never abandon us. He is most worthy of praise.