Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! – Phillippians 4:4

This verse makes so much sense when things are going great in your life. But, how in the world can you rejoice when things are going bad? When you get fired, when your mom is diagnosed with cancer, when you’re infected with COVID, how can you even rejoice?

Does God want me to laugh and smile and act like nothing is happening? Well, not exactly!

Let me share a quick story that can somewhat show you how I see it.

When I was around 5 years old, dad taught us how to rollerblade and ride a bike. We never used bikes with training wheels. We used regular ones. He would hold us at the beginning, then let go for a second, and then grab us again. He’d let go for longer and longer until we were able to keep the balance on our own. Now we knew how to ride a bike! We were excited, and he was too.

Even though we were riding on our own, dad was still around. We were never alone. But did that mean we didn’t fall ever again? No, it didn’t. Oh we fell, yes we did and several times. Did it hurt? Ofcourse it did!  Did we cry, why yes indeed!

However, we knew that it was going to be okay because dad was there. He couldn’t prevent us from falling, but he was there all the time, which made the pain not feel as bad.

That’s how I see it when it says to “rejoice in the Lord”. It’s the peace that we feel when things go wrong.  Sadness knocks at the door, we might cry even, but we know that God is by our side and we are certain that things are going to be okay.

If you are going through difficulty today, I tell you to rejoice in the Lord! It’s going to be okay.