“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” —Philippians 4:4 NIV
Being Happy When Things Are Crappy
“The towering intellect of the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas, once asked the question, What would satisfy our desire? What would it take to feel satisfied? The answer he came up with was this: everything. We would have to experience everything and everybody and be experienced by everything and everybody to feel satisfied. Eat at every restaurant; travel to every country, every city, every exotic locale; experience every natural wonder; make love to every partner we could possibly desire; win every award; climb to the top of every field; own every item in the world; etc. We would have to experience it all to ever feel…okay, that’s enough.
We live with chronically unsatisfied desires…no matter how much we see, do, buy, sell, eat, drink, experience, visit, we alway want more.
The question for us as apprentices of Jesus is simple: What do we do with all this pent-up, unsatisfied desire? This restlessness. The Jesus tradition would offer this: human desire is infinite because we were made to live with God forever in His world and nothing less will ever satisfy us, so our only hope is to put desire back in its proper place on God. And to put all our other desires in their proper place below God. To come to the place where we no longer need (fill in the blank) to live a happy, restful life.” —John Mark Comer (“The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”)
our
“Day and night I have only tears for food,
While my enemies continually taunt me saying,
“Where is this God of yours?”My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be.
I walked among the crowds of worshipers,
Leading a great procession to the house of God,
Singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!“Why am I so discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again – my Savior and my God!” —Psalm 42:3-6 NLT
“Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise His holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things He does for me.” —Psalm 103:1-2 NLT
we rejoice in our
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” —Philippians 4:4 NIV
we can continually
“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits –
Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” —Psalm 103:2-5 NIV
Discussion Questions
What is your initial reaction to Paul’s admonition in Philippians 4:4 to “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”?
What are some things that come to mind you feel often hinder your ability to rejoice in the Lord always? What keeps you from rejoicing?
In the sermon, we narrowed it down to two very broad categories, our feelings and our forgetting the good God has given us, as reasons we may be hindered in our rejoicing. Which do you identify with more?
What we actually learn from Paul is not only that we should rejoice always, but how we can rejoice always. We rejoice in our Savior, not our circumstances! Our rejoicing is based on Jesus, not what is happening to us. How does this change your understanding of how you can rejoice even when things don’t seem worth rejoicing over?
Read Psalm 103:1-5. How does this verse better shape your perspective to see you can continually praise?