Sometimes we just need to rejoice even when we don't want to. And according to this chapter we should"greatly rejoice" (not just a itty bitty joy...but a great joy) even though sometimes our circumstances might be not so joyous.
Each year in Oasis (our high school youth group) we choose a one word theme for the year. We dig into it in September and then keep coming back to throughout the year. These past two weeks we have been looking into the difference between happiness and joy. Our take away is that happiness is connected with our circumstances. Things are going well, we are happy. Things are going poorly, we are unhappy. Pretty simple stuff. But joy on the other hand, we believe that is routed much deeper. It is connected to the goodness of our God. And since God never changes we can always have joy.
With this in mind verse 6 totally made sense. " In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials". We can "greatly rejoice" even when we are going through hard times. Because the joy comes not from our circumstances, but from God.
What are you "greatly rejoicing" about these days? Do tell!
Mathew McCabe
I greatly rejoice that I have the opportunity to learn.
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