Rejoice in the Lord always. Philippians 4:4
This is a great verse for a coffee mug with a pretty cursive font. It would be a perfect
refrigerator magnet or on a greeting card. It makes you sound spiritual if you tell your friends, "Rejoice in the Lord always!"
But I hate it when someone quotes that verse to me. If I have a flat tire and it's 100 degrees out or my kid is sick or I am going through a difficult situation.
Who wrote that verse anyway? Do you rejoice in the Lord always? The apostle Paul wrote that verse from all places - prison. But did he rejoice when he was in prison? He did! Paul was with his buddy Silas.
Can you picture them? Thrown into prison on the cold, hard ground with open wounds, maybe a broken nose, a couple of ribs. No doctor, nurse, Band-Aids or ibuprofen. What did they do? Rejoice always.
They were praising God for the Who, not the what. If you asked them, "What are you praising God for?" I don't think there was any "what" they could point to. Nothing good was happening but their God was still good. They weren't praising God for the what. They were praising God for the Who and you can do that too.
They were praising God BEFORE He showed up. Acts 16:26 They did not praise God because He showed up; God showed up because they praised Him. (God inhabits the praise of His people, Psalm 22:3) When we praise Him, He will show up.
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