The Lord is at hand

In Philippians 4:4, Paul says "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say Rejoice."

We are following Matt Chandler's video series on Philippians, and this is the verse he focused on, and we talked about, last night. Here's a few notes I got from it.

--Rejoicing doesn't always = a smile.
--God redeems struggling by being who He is.
--Rejoicing is not a cheesy, unrealistic view of life.
--God is always who He is (faithful, trustworthy, loving) in good and bad times.
--It's okay, and even better for me to ask why.
--Rejoicing doesn't stop the suffering.
--Rejoicing in the pain doesn't stop the pain.
--Rejoicing in the power of God over our circumstances is right.
--Rejoicing in Him gives up hope and strength to live through the pain.
--The Lord is at hand.


I'm sure I'm theologically wrong on things sometimes, but I feel like that's okay. I feel like God loves a willing, servant heart. Rejoicing is so hard. Just hearing that it was important last night was my undoing. I have so many things going on right now. So many internal battles that keep me up at night and keep me depressed. It's so easy to be discouraged right now, and instead I'm called to rejoice. The Lord is at hand.