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Rejoice In the Lord… Always, Again I say Rejoice

One of my favorite daily news feeds comes from The Daily Spurgeon. Today’s thought addressed something that Christians struggle with often. But usually, when someone comes to me with this question, they’re already on the right track. It is “Can I enjoy the world around me, though it is perishing?”

The Bible tells us to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world (1 John 2:16-17), but the “world” in view here is not the planet which God made to be good (according to Genesis). Rather it’s the demonically-managed system of false philosophies that dominates a sin-ridden society. So can we enjoy the world? Arts? Nature? Music? Things which God inspired? Yes. Spurgeon writes…

The Christian has joy as other men have in the common mercies of life. For him there are charms in music, excellence in painting, and beauty in sculpture; for him the hills have sermons of majesty, the rocks hymns of sublimity, and the valleys lessons of love. He can look upon all things with an eye as clear and joyous as another man’s; he can be glad both in God’s gifts and God’s works. He is not dead to the happiness of the household: around his hearth he finds
happy associations, without which life were drear indeed. His children fill his home with glee, his wife is his solace and delight, his friends are his comfort and refreshment. He accepts the comforts which soul and body can yield him according as God seeth it wise to afford them unto him; but he will tell you that in all these separately, yea, and in all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as he doth in the person of his Lord Jesus. Brethren, there is a wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; there is a bread which even the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring forth. You and I have said, when we have beheld others finding their god in earthly comforts, “You may boast in gold, and silver, and raiment, but I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”

Yes, we can rejoice “in the Lord.” Always. Even on vacation! But our rejoicing is ultimately rooted in a secure knowledge of Jesus Christ. So it’s a joy that those outside the faith can never fully understand. If joy is rooted in appreciation, then God’s children find joy in everything for which they can appreciate the Creator’s touch. So rejoice today! Again I say, rejoice!