Focus: Rejoice!

Text: Ps.149:2

"Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King."

Joy marks out the Christian. Paul says, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy IN the Holy Ghost" (Rom.14:17). He tells of "joy OF the Holy Ghost," and of the "joy of faith," which means that our faith in Christ produces joy. (1Thes.1:6; Phil.1:25). 

The psalmist talks about "the joy of thy salvation" (Ps.51:12). Faith in Jesus Christ gets the believer saved, and one effect of salvation is joy. Isaiah tells us that it is with joy that we can draw water from "the wells of salvation." In Ezra we read that the people of God "kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days WITH joy: for the LORD had MADE them joyful, and TURNED the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to STRENGTHEN their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel" (Ezr.6:22). Nehemiah tells us about "the joy of the Lord." Paul says, "We…joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ…" (Rom.5:11). Luke says that "the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost" (Act.13:52). You can see that joy and the Spirit of God are linked together. He comes into us with joy. He lives in us with joy.

It is one thing for us to have joy and quite another thing for us to rejoice.

Put the joy in you to work. Rejoice! Activate the joy of the Spirit in you. Make "sacrifices of joy" to the Lord (Ps.27:6). Let your voice be identified as "the voice of joy" (Ps.42:4). Your God wants you to rejoice intentionally and contagiously. Inject others with your joy.

Paul prays, "Now the God of hope fill you with ALL JOY and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Rom.15:13). God saturates your whole being with "joy unspeakable," using Peter's words. He fills you to capacity with joy. Wear the joy of heaven on earth. Make God your "chief joy." Rejoice, regardless of what the circumstances say. 

Joy is an internal affair that gets to manifest externally. Joy may seem hidden, but rejoicing unveils it.

Child of God, rejoice in the Lord! Let your rejoicing be known to all men. Rejoice in God who made you. Rejoice in your King. Be joyful!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter