God's Will For You in Christ Jesus

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Notice how the apostle underlines this: This is the will of God… for you. The will of God is not to make some dramatic display of power or gift that is going to attract attention. It is the quiet response you make to the daily trials and circumstance in which you find yourself.

Rejoice always. The words perhaps ought to be translated, Be cheerful. Do not let things get you down. Society is filled with despair and gloom. The pressures under which we live today can do this. But a Christian has an inner resource. Therefore, we can obey the word of James, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds (James 1:2). Do not take it as an attack upon you. Do not moan and groan and say, What have I done to deserve this sort of thing? But rejoice, because it is good for you. Trials make you grow up, make you face yourself and learn things about yourself you did not know.

Second, Paul says, be prayerful: Pray continually. That is the method of drawing on the inner strength that God provides. God often removes the props from our lives in order to teach us that he himself is all we need. Have your props been taken away, and have you begun to learn that God himself can meet your needs? As you poured out your heart in prayer, sometimes in almost desperate prayer, you discovered that he had quiet ways of answering that taught you that he was El Shaddai, the God who is enough, the God who can meet your needs. That is why Paul says, Pray continually. When you are under pressure and in trouble, be prayerful. Lean on that inner strength that God provides.

Then, third, be thankful. Why be thankful? Because when you are faced with a trial, you are being given an opportunity to glorify God. If you never face trials or pressures, how could anyone ever see that you have an invisible means of support, that you have a reliable source of strength that others do not know anything about? These are the opportunities that God gives us. When the early Christian leaders were arrested by the Sanhedrin, they were beaten for their faith, but they left the Council rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to bear suffering for his name's sake. That is a thoroughly Christian attitude, and that is the will of God for each of us.

Lord, in the quiet response I make to my daily trials, teach me to rejoice always, be prayerful, and be thankful.