5. THE REQUIREMENT TO REJOICE

Owen Cooper of Yazoo City, Mississippi, saw his house go up in smoke. He was one of the nation's outstanding Christian laymen and one of Mississippi's top-ranking citizens. Some members of the family barely escaped with their lives. The fire completely gutted the home and destroyed nearly everything of value.

Shortly after this terrible fire, Cooper's pastor, Dr. Harold Shirley, told me that the entire family attended a prayer meeting the following night. In that service Owen Cooper arose during the testimony time and, with a radiance that only God can give, expressed his gratitude to the Lord for sparing their lives. He had learned years before the truth of Romans 8:28: "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Despite calamity, the habit pattern of the Cooper family could not be thrown off track.

Happiness is something you choose

When Paul wrote about happiness he did not say, "I hope you will be happy." He told people to be happy:

Rejoice evermore. —1 Thessalonians 5:16

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. —Philippians 4:4

Delight yourselves in the Lord; yes, find your joy in him at all times. —Philippians 4:4 Phillips

You say, "But 1 don't feel like rejoicing. I don't feel like being happy."

By that you mean that the circumstances engulfing you are not such as contribute to your happiness. The majority of chronic worriers think of happiness as something that happens to them, like the sun coming out after a rainstorm. And so they make the mistake of being passive—waiting until their circumstances change. Of course there is nothing wrong with changing difficult circumstances yourself, if you have that option. But happiness is not a state of becoming. It is a state of being. You don't acquire happiness. You assume happiness.

I emphasize again: Philippians 4:4 is in the imperative mood. It is mandatory. Paul isn't making helpful suggestions, he's giving a command. "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice." Literally, it could be translated, "Keep on rejoicing in the Lord always: and again I say, keep on rejoicing." Make the joy of the Lord the habit pattern of your life. For when you fail to do this, you sin, and you suffer.

The key to rejoicing is praise

You rejoice when you praise. You cannot praise God without rejoicing in God and rejoicing in the circumstances —no matter how unpleasant—which God permits.

The word "praise" in its various forms, and the word "rejoice" in its various forms, are mentioned more than 550 times in the Word of God. The very fact that this subject receives such frequent attention in the Bible indicates its importance.

In Psalm 34:1, David said, "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth." Praise was the habit pattern of David's life, even though, like all of us, David had many troubles and difficulties. He often passed through deep waters. One son, Adonijah, broke his heart. Absalom, another son, betrayed his father and tried to usurp his authority. Another son, Ammon, grieved David by committing adultery with his half-sister, Tamar. You also remember how viciously Shimei cursed David on one occasion. And every Sunday school pupil remembers the story of Saul's persecution of David. Saul repeatedly sought David's life and hounded him with barbaric intensity.

Yet, in all of this David blessed the Lord and fulfilled the requirement to rejoice. God's praise was continually in David's mouth.

In Psalm 33:1, David admonishes us: "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright." This is the injunction of the man who was "a man after God's own heart."

After the local authorities had mercilessly beaten Peter and the apostles for speaking "in the name of Jesus" the apostles departed, "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name" (Acts 5:40,41).

You are entitled to no particular commendation simply because you rejoice when everything goes well. When, however, you have made praise and rejoicing the habit pattern of your life, you have arrived at that place where you not only bring glory to God, but also set up an immunity against worry.

Rejoice even on blue Mondays and black Fridays. Though it seems that friends have betrayed you, neighbors are vicious and mean to you, relatives don't appreciate you, and tragedy overtakes you, it nevertheless remains true that you will conquer worry with the attitude expressed in Isaiah 12:2,4: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. . . . And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted."

Praise is always possible

Remember what I have written earlier. There is no condition or circumstance that can justify worry. Worry is a sin. Praise is an antidote to worry.

One of the most radiant Christian men I have ever met passed through a heart-crushing trial. To help augment the family income during the depression, he and his wife provided room and board for a "highly respected citizen." The man whom they took in turned out to be a Judas, a betrayer. He seduced his host's wife with diabolical cunning. When she tried to break off the relationship he went berserk. He strangled her and then put her baby in the oven and turned on the gas, murdering the little one by asphyxiation. He then took the couple's eight-year-old son out into the garage and strangled him with a piece of wire. Finally he returned to the kitchen and lay down on some chairs in front of the stove with the gas jets wide open.

The rescue squad was able to revive the viperous murderer. But a radiant Christian man lost, in one fell swoop, his wife and children. This crushing blow would have upset the mental balance of a lesser man. Yet in the strength of the Lord he actually went to the penitentiary to witness to the murderer. The way he conducted himself through that ordeal, and during the subsequent years, has made a powerful impact on me—and on thousands of others—for good and for God.

Of course he was grief-stricken. But through it all the joy of the Lord remained his abiding and unwavering possession.

You say you have troubles? Sure you do. We all do. When rejoicing has become the habit pattern of your life you are not a thermometer personality who registers the temperature of your environment. You are rather a thermostat personality, setting the temperature of your environment. You have learned, in the words of Paul, to "rejoice evermore" (1 Thessalonians 5:16).

Paul was no "ivory-tower theorist." He urged the Christians at Philippi, "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). At the time he wrote those words he was a prisoner in Rome. Almost certainly he knew Nero would never release him. He surely knew that ahead of him lay the executioner's sword. Yet he did not say, "Cry with me," or "Mourn with me," but "Rejoice with me."

If Paul could rejoice in circumstances like that, what excuse can we find for our anxieties?