Be joyful always;

pray continually;

give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thess 5:16-18).

Living in the world full of bad news and bad happenings, how can we be joyful always? Yes, there are times when we rejoice at good news and good happenings, but most of what we hear and see in this world is not good, if not bad, and there is not much we can be joyful about. It seems impossible to be joyful “always.” Yet, the Bible commands us to “be joyful always!” The only way to be joyful, then, is to be joyful in spite of all the bad news and bad happenings by not being controlled by what we feel or what our natural instinct says. Since our circumstances cannot always make us feel joyful, we need to be willfully joyful by faith standing upon God’s word. And if the Bible commands us to be joyful always, we should and we can. Look at the following words:

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance (Rom 5:2-3); …

Since God is spirit, anything of God—not only his existence, but also anything of his nature, his love, and his power—is spiritual. In order to have joy, which comes from the presence of God, we will need to focus upon the spiritual reality, rather than the physical reality. And this spiritual reality is manifested in us through our faith in the word. On the other hand, the sufferings that we experience today are the manifestations of Satan’s work of destruction, which came as the results of our sin. As long as we live on earth where Satan is still at work, we will experience such sufferings including persecutions. The important thing to remember, however, is that while those who are still hostile to God because of their disobedience and unbelief cannot help being afraid of such sufferings, we Christians, who have been reconciled to him through Christ, need not be afraid of them at all because of his promise: he will turn all those sufferings into something good and very valuable. Read the following words:

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (Rom 5:3-5).

Pay attention to the reason why we rejoice in our sufferings: “because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Everything that is seen with our physical eyes will perish and cannot be taken with us when we leave this world. But the “character” together with “hope” you have gained as a result of suffering and perseverance will never be lost even after the world perishes. If so, why should we be still afraid of our sufferings? God is no longer angry with us because we have been reconciled to him through Christ. He loves us, and he is for us.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were required to give various kinds of sacrifices and offerings at the temple when they worshipped God. One kind of such sacrifices was called “fellowship (peace) offering.” It was to repair their hostile relationship with God so that they could approach him peacefully and boldly. In other words, it brought reconciliation between God and his people. The New Testament teaches us that Jesus was offered as the fellowship offering. See, for instance, the following words:

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:20-21).

Because of this reconciliation we now have, we rejoice in God, and even in our sufferings.