My Verse for the Year
Forty years ago, a friend challenged me to choose a verse for the year. This was to be a verse that would serve as an anchor, guide, reminder and a point of reference throughout the year. I have faithfully adhered to this practice now, for forty years. And I’m constantly amazed at how each year’s verse has seemed tailor-made for the events I faced over the following twelve months. And for all these forty years, my verse for the year served as the text for the message I would preach the first Sunday in January. Today’s blog is about my verse for 2010.
If you’ve ever received a handwritten note from me, you know that I close with the words of First Thessalonians 5: 18, “Rejoice evermore!” Though not my life’s verse, these words contain an exhortation I believe we all should take to heart. This year, God has led me to claim that verse as my verse for the year. “Rejoice evermore!” Why is it that I am so drawn to those words?
I am immediately taken with the fact that rejoicing is a command. In other words, a bad attitude is not an option available to the believer. But what if you are the victim of some error in judgement, or some awful mistake? Those who have served with me in staff positions over the years have often heard me say that mistakes are inevitable, but bad attitudes are not an option. The single, most humanly inexplicable characteristic of Rome’s Christian martyrs was their remarkable, supernatural joy in the face of imminent death.
Rejoicing is also a choice. In order to rejoice always, I must often make a deliberate choice in the face of circumstances that would rob me of my joy. My eldest daughter is fond of reminding me that once when she had been sent to bed she wailed in protest. I responded by whispering in her ear, “You can go to bed mad, or sad, or glad, but you are going to bed. So what’s your choice?” Rejoicing is a behavioral choice, not simply an emotional reaction.
Though it is difficult to imagine, our rejoicing is to be continual. This does not mean that there are to be no such emotions in life as sadness, grief, perplexity, or distress. But it does mean that joy is to be the over-riding element of of our emotions. While happiness is directly related to our external circumstances, joy surges up from within. Our joy is rooted in Who we have, and Who has us, rather than what we have, or what we a currently experiencing. Our joy should be obvious to others.
Finally, rejoicing is an evidence of confidence. Our rejoicing in the face of events that are perplexing and stressful is a clear signal that we know Who is in control of every circumstance of life. God is not asking us to do something unrealistic here. He is not commanding us to paste a silly grin on our face at every painful turn of life, saying through clenched teeth, “God is good all the time; all the time God is good.” He is asking us to solemnly consider the fact that nothing Has escaped His sovereign purview, and He is, indeed, causing “all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rm 8:28).
So, to paraphrase what this father once said to his child, our Heavenly Father is now whispering to our hearts, “You can go through life mad, sad, or glad, but you are going through life. So what’s your choice?”
I choose to
Rejoice evermore!
Tom Elliff
2 Tim 1:12
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