Rejoice Always | Daily Devotional 1646

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1646. Today's Devo is called Rejoice Always. Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy, the to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why every weekday we share a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Well, welcome back to the My Morning Devotional Podcast. I am your host for the week, Gabby Alesi Kaladiud. And I am so excited to be joining you as we are finishing out our study of the book of Philippians. And so I am so excited as we jump into the last chapter you would have heard from my sisters as they covered Philippians one through three. And this week we're going to close it out and finish it up with chapter four. So we hope this has been a blessing and we hope you've learned more. Whether you've never read the book of Philippians before, or maybe you've never read it this way, we hope it is a blessing to you. I'd also say a couple of things. Number one, I'm getting over a cold. So forgive my voice if you're listening. Just forgive me. And then if you're watching me, um, I am currently filming this a couple of weeks before this. So currently I would be about maybe seven months pregnant. So no, I don't look it right now. That's because I am not currently seven months pregnant. But when you're watching this, I will be. Okay, we're gonna jump into Philippians four, and we're gonna actually pick up a little bit. Philippians four, chapter one through three is a lot of opening greetings as he's closing out the final chapter or the final letter, if you will, of this whole letter. But we're gonna pick it up here in Philippians chapter four, verses four through five, and it says this rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The end of this verse says, The Lord is at hand, but there is a comma, which means it's taking us into the next chapter, which we will get to tomorrow. But we want to look at this verse that says, Rejoice in the Lord always. You see, Paul doesn't say rejoice when everything is going well. He uses the word always. And that's challenging because our circumstances often will dictate our emotions. So for example, when our day is going well, we experience joy. When everything's easy, we're happy about it. But when we get a phone call that kind of rocks our life, or when a diagnosis comes, when an email comes through, when our boss stops by our office and delivers news to us that we really don't want to hear. Or, as we all know, when the bill comes at the end of the month, suddenly our joy can disappear. And because of the happenings in our life, we lose that joy. But Paul is telling us something different. Paul is saying this rejoice in the Lord. You see, our joy isn't found in what's happening around us, it's found with what it's found in what's happening in us. He's not saying rejoice in the circumstance, he's saying rejoice in the Lord. There's always going to be something that we could use as a reason for us to not have joy. And this is a really hard message to receive because maybe you're going through a season right now where everything around you is telling you you should lose your joy. Or you feel like everything is stealing your joy. But there's always going to be God, but there's always going to be something that God gives to us that gives us a reason to rejoice. God hasn't changed because your circumstance has changed. God is still the same yesterday, today, and forever. So today, let's not force ourselves to pretend that everything's fine, everything's okay, that we're just gonna get through the day and I'm just gonna find joy in the midst of the circumstance. No. Find one thing that is true about God, even when everything isn't okay. Because it's not just finding joy in the circumstance, it's finding joy in the Lord no matter the circumstance. So I have a question for you as we close out this devo. What circumstance has been stealing your joy lately? What's been controlling your joy? What is something that's been happening that you feel like is taking your joy away? People say it all the time. I just feel like my joy is zapped. Well, what's zapping your joy? Let's take it to the Lord. Jesus, we just pray right now, we just thank you for today. We thank you for who you are, and we thank you that, Lord, in the midst of our circumstance, we might not find joy around us, but we can find joy in you. We just pray, Lord, that when life is difficult, that you would remind us that you're still good, God, you're still present, and you are still within us. And we thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen. So there you have it, your five minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.