Saturday Smiles - Forever and a Day

          "Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near."  Philippians 4:4-5 NIV

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          Rejoice!  In other words, celebrate, express joy, be pleased about, cheer, exalt, be glad, or delight in the LORD!  Yay! I can do that! But wait…………….. ALWAYS?!  How can a person rejoice in the Lord always?!  This probably doesn’t actually mean always, right?  Let’s see, my thesaurus says that always means; forever, for all time, for eternity, until the end of time, and forever and a day.  Um… Yup, I guess that is always.  But surely the Lord did not mean to rejoice in Him when I have a headache, or if my house burns down, or when someone I love passes away… or does He?  Indeed, I believe that He does mean this to be.  But this joy is not always a feeling of happiness, but rather should always be a life lived in awe of the Lord’s goodness, His faithfulness, and His provision for our lives.  Yes, life is hard, friends and family die, traumatic events happen, but far beyond all of this, our God is faithful and He does have a perfect plan beyond what we can see in this life.  It is in this knowledge, in our Lord, that we rejoice in Him forever and a day.  


“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”
Gentleness - Calm, kind, tender.
Or in the ESV version this verse uses the word;
Reasonableness - Sensible, rational, fair.
KJV;  Moderation - Restraint, self-control, temperance.


          Let all of these things be obvious to everyone that you pass by, whether in the store or on the street - these Christ like attributes can shine from who we are.  And these characteristics shine even brighter and are a much greater testimony when they come from a person who is right in the middle of the toughest of life’s trials because it will show that the Lord truly is near.