A young girl became a Christian in an exciting revival at her church and was baptized the closing Sunday morning. That afternoon she ran through the house singing and dancing. Her sour grandfather rebuked her with these words: “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You just joined the church and you’re singing and dancing on the Lord’s Day!”
Crushed by her grandfather’s attitude, the little girl went out to the barn, climbed up on the corral fence, and observed an old mule standing there with a sad, droopy face and bleary eyes. As she reached over and patted the mule sympathetically, she said, “Don’t cry, ole mule. I guess you’ve got the same kind of religion that Grandpa has!”
The Bible nowhere speaks about a “happy” Christian; it talks plentifully of joy.
Happiness depends on things that happen, and may sometimes be an insult; joyfulness is never touched by external conditions, and a joyful heart is never an insult. (Oswald Chambers) Sidney Harris once wrote, “The most miserable people I have known have not been those who suffered from catastrophes – which they could blame on fate or accident – but those who had everything they wanted, except the power to enjoy it.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
Dennis Davidson, pastor of First Baptist Church of the Bluegrass, said about this passage: “We don’t like bad times, but we have to believe that God knows about us, and that somehow He will use our bad times to better our lives. He’ll conform us into the image of Christ through them. As we go through the agony and pain of whatever you have to go through, remember that God is in control. There will come a time when God will bring you through it. You will begin to see why He allowed it to happen in the first place. But in faith we’ve got to be willing to go through the agony.”
He continues, “In the midst of it, we can rejoice. The Hebrew behind “exult” means to visibly show to all that regardless of how bad your circumstances are, you have chosen to trust God. They see it on your face. They hear it out of your mouth. They don’t hear you complaining or murmuring. They hear you saying, ‘I am trusting in the God of my salvation.’”
It is a choice to praise God in the midst of trouble. Which will you choose? To reject the God who loves us and is our only hope and wallow in the despair of your situation? Or will you choose to rejoice in the God who saved us by His grace and who has His hand upon us in every situation?
I will rejoice by choice.
Jack Ward is the pastor of Tomahawk Missionary Baptist Church.