REJOICE AND BE GLAD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I really love my life. I really do. It hasn’t been perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I love it, especially the last 21 years of it when I came to really find Jesus and the following scripture verse came alive inside me:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Yes, everything truly sprung up new after I recommitted my life to Christ and never looked back. It changed my whole perspective because I began to live for Him and not myself. And when I started to live for Him, then something awesome happened.

I began to live like Him.

That’s the essence of being a Christian. It’s being Christ-like. And when I started living like I was Christ-like, then I began to love life and everything in it, even those who did me wrong, because at the heart of Jesus is love and when we love as unconditionally as Jesus loved, we find our lives changed forever. We become a new creation.

This newness leads us to rejoice and be glad in each day we’re granted, each day that we have the chance to live and love as Jesus did, each day that we have to get to know Him better as we receive His Spirit and study His life in the Bible. And when we adopt a life loving attitude through Christ, then I believe we will easily adopt the tenets that we find in the following passage from Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9:

Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. (vv 7-10)

So what does a life looks like that is always rejoicing and glad in the Lord? According to this word of God, it would have the following components:

1. Delight over the Lord’s sustenance, especially when we eat and drink. We should always be giving thanks to the Lord for all He does for us and remember how much we are richly blessed.

Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart.

2. Peace and assurance in how we live for we are living under the Lord’s will and not our own. When we live in accordance with the Lord’s will, we will always be living in a way that He approves.

For God has already approved what you do.

3. Clothe yourself with an air of happiness and celebration for the life the Lord has given you. In Old Testament days, a festival would find people dressing in white robes and anointing their heads with aromatic oil, both symbols of joyous celebration. Contrast this with someone in mourning who would wear sackcloth and lay on the ground, throwing ashes on their body. We are to live like we are glad about the lives we have been given. Let others see your gladness and show them to the kind of life the Lord wants them to live, a life that is in Christ Jesus, a life that will always lead a person to celebrate.

Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.

4. If God has blessed you with a spouse, enjoy your life with him or her. My wife’s name is Grace and I always tell people that it’s her middle name because her first name is “Amazing”. People always take that as if I am joking but if they really knew the full story, they would know that I mean what I say with all my heart. This is because the Lord brought her into my life for more than just to have someone to share time with. Instead, He brought her into my life to draw me back to Him. In other words, the Lord used Grace as an instrument of His will to bring me back to His service after I had strayed. And for that, I am forever grateful, grateful to Him for loving me so much that He would pursue me and want me back, grateful to Grace for allowing herself to be a part of God’s greater plan. Had it not been for that, I probably would not be writing this to you today and I definitely would not have been able to have 21 years of marriage which gave given me the opportunity to share love with Grace, our love for each other and our deep love for the Lord.

Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days.

5. Do your best at work, whatever it is you do, using the abilities that the Lord has given you.

Let’s just be honest. There are days when we don’t exactly love our work but the ability to work, the opportunity to labor and earn what we need to get along, is a gift from the Lord and we should rejoice and be glad in it. We may not enjoy it sometimes but at least we have work to do and that is a blessing we should be thankful for.  

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

God’s message for us in our scripture passage is clear: Rejoice and be glad. For this is what the Lord desires for us as we revel in the life He has provided.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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