Believers are Commanded to Rejoice

Scriptures command the Saints to rejoice in the Lord in everything. A sign given in Romans 1 of apostacy is thanklessness.

Today our churches are all like the Laodicians who are rich and blessed and have need of nothing. We tend to confuse gain with godliness. There is little prayer to God for our needs and a presumption of plenty and contentment.

In older times, when things were hard, there was a crying out to God for His blessing, and a rejoicing at all His benefits.

Our nation's first President instituted the day of Thanksgiving we celebrate with a solemn proclamation, exhorting the citizens to thank the Almighty for His numerous blessings - political, personal, and physical.

God knows that man will forget Him when the good times come. At the very time we should be rejoicing in the Lord's blessing, we tend to wander away from Him and forget Him. God warned the people of Israel against such backsliding in prosperity, and He instituted specific feasts at which the people were required to rejoice before the Lord in all His blessings in everything they did.

Today, we need to consciously rejoice in and celebrate the blessings of God, with an acute sense that they all come from His hand, and not by our own strength.

The Saints have a feast each Lord's Day around the table of our Lord Jesus. He provides rich food indeed for His people. The symbols of bread and wine picture His body and blood by which we are sustained.

Oh that the Saints would exult in the blessings of their salvation! Oh that we would rejoice around our Lord's feast table! Oh that our hearts would be full of praise and love for Him Who loved us, even unto death!