I Thessalonians 5:16 – Rejoice always,
We are finishing up our study of I Thessalonians. In the final portion of this letter, Paul writes several brief, last-minute instructions. These instructions were either given to address some minor problems within the church, or they were simply important reminders to stay faithful to our Christian duties. Either way, they are pertinent to the church of today. 
The first of these is the duty to ‘rejoice always’. To rejoice is to feel joy; to experience a high degree of gladness, to delight, joy, exult or triumph.
It would be great if Christians were always rejoicing because everything in life was perfect – but we all know that is not the case!
Every Christian experiences trials, temptations, problems, seasons of mourning, and other afflictions. When these situations arise, we have two choices:
First, we can give into our flesh and react like the world does. We can complain, despair, lose faith, throw a pity-party, blame others, become angry or give up. When we do, we give the enemy an open door into our lives and cause ourselves spiritual harm.
For example, scripture tells us that the words we speak are like seeds that we plant into our lives. Eventually they will produce fruit – either life or death:
Proverbs18:10 – Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
So if we react to problems by complaining, blaming others or losing our temper, we are planting death/destruction into our own lives. We are tearing down our faith instead of building it up.
Worse yet, when a Christian reacts in this manner, it is an insult to God. Whether you realize it or not, sinners are watching your life. When you allow your flesh to determine your response to problems, you are misrepresenting God; you are spreading false rumors about him.
As a result, sinners will conclude that God is not who he claims to be. After all, if God really is sovereign, all powerful and the fountain of all goodness and love, why would he be so mean to his children? Is he incapable of taking care of them, or is he just indifferent to their suffering? Either way, how can he be trusted?
We can safely conclude that reacting with our flesh results in nothing but evil and devastation.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is another choice – we can choose to respond to life’s challenges with our spirit, like the children of God that we are.
First of all, let’s make one thing clear - I’m not suggesting that we should be glad when bad things happen. For instance, we don’t rejoice when a tree falls on our garage and smashes our new car. That would be ridiculous.
However, Christians can rejoice because no matter what happens, God ‘has our back’. He is the source of anything and everything we will ever need and we can lean into him when a crisis occurs.
Consider the following:
We can rejoice because all things (trials, temptations and adverse circumstances), work together for our good (Romans 8:28). We have the assurance that when a crisis reaches us, it was filtered through our heavenly Father first. He did not cause it, but he allowed it to touch our lives for a purpose. God often uses difficulties as a tool to shape our lives, change our priorities/values or make us over into his image.
We can rejoice because no matter how grievous our situation is (or seems to be), we know it is only temporary. At some point, our circumstances will change or God will call us home. In either case, we know that relief is on the way. Simply stated, sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Psalms 30:5).
We can rejoice when we suffer persecution or distress for the sake of the gospel, because God will reward us for it (Luke 6:22-23).
We can rejoice because regardless of the situation, God is everything we need. We are in a personal relationship with Jehovah Rapha, the healer (don’t forget healing is physical, spiritual, emotional and mental). He is also Jehovah Jireh, the One who provides and Jehovah Elyon, the One who blesses, and Jehovah Shalom, the One who gives peace, and Jehovah Saboath, the Lord of Hosts who has NEVER lost a battle! We could go on and on, but I think you get the point.
Romans 8:32 – He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
God has already given us the most valuable gift in the universe – his own Son. Since that is the case, anything else we ask him for is clearly a lesser gift; it wouldn’t make sense for him to deny us those things. 
We can always rejoice because as Christians, we do not depend on external circumstances for joy or happiness. The source of our joy is the indwelling Holy Spirit. He is our comforter, guide, teacher and constant companion. He is the sure guarantee of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The bottom line is that Christians can rejoice in hard times, because we have a loving, supremely powerful heavenly Father that we can lean into until our crisis is over. We can also be certain that the crisis will be for his glory and our good.
Furthermore, when a Christian responds to problems with rejoicing, it presents a clear picture of God to the unbelievers around us. They will be curious about the source of our joy and peace. We will then have opportunities to witness for Christ.
So, the next time you get hit with an unexpected trial or difficulty (like a tree smashing the garage and destroying your car), don’t give into your flesh. Before you say or do anything, stop and take a deep breath. Remind yourself that you have every reason to rejoice, no matter what you are facing.
I Thessalonians 5:17 - …pray without ceasing,
Prayer is the act of talking with God. It is so simple that a child can do it, yet it is so rich and complex that no one fully understands it. Hundreds of books have been written on this important subject. It would be silly to think that we could cover even the basics in today’s study.
Therefore, we will limit our comments to the ‘without ceasing’ part of Paul’s command.
Obviously, we cannot live our lives on our knees constantly calling upon God. We need to make time for other events/obligations in life such as work, sleep, eating/drinking, education, raising our children, etc.
The apostle Paul also had a busy life. He traveled, preached, established churches, reasoned with the Jews and worked a job, yet he described himself as one who was ceaseless in prayer (Colossians 1:9, II Timothy 1:3, etc).
How did he do that?
According to the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, the phrase translated ‘without ceasing’ means ‘without intermission’ in the original Greek. In other words, there should not be prayer-less gaps in our lives.
Please note, this is not speaking about the amount of time we spend in prayer. The amount of time you spend in prayer is a decision for you and the Lord to make together.
To pray without ceasing addresses the frequency of our prayers; we should be praying on a regular basis. This is opposed to those who pray sporadically (only when they are in trouble or when they want something).
Think of it this way – Earthly relationships thrive when people spend time with each other. By spending time with another person, you get to know and understand them better. Your love for them grows. As you participate in activities together, you strengthen your relationship through shared experiences and memories. 
The same is true of our relationship with God. Prayer is one of the ways we spend time with him. As we fellowship with him, we discover new things about him. Our love for him grows and we naturally desire to obey him. As we partner with him in performing good works, our relationship is strengthened. Our faith in him grows as we meditate on our past experiences with him.
The converse is also true. If we stop spending time with someone, the relationship grows cold. Likewise, if we stop consistently spending time in prayer, our relationship with God will also grow cold.
We can avoid this trap by praying with consistency and perseverance.
Luke 18:1 – And he [Jesus] told them [the disciples] a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
Consistency: Believers must be committed to the constant observance of regular seasons of prayer. The most important of these is daily personal prayer. They key word here is ‘daily’ – we should be communicating with God on a regular, consistent basis.
Just to be clear, let me emphasize that we are not talking about a state of legalism where personal prayer becomes just another thing on our to-do list. Personal prayer is one of the ways we fellowship with God and strengthen our relationship with him.
During personal prayer, we have the opportunity to offer God a sacrifice of praise and worship, to ask for provision, to obtain forgiveness, and to stand in the gap for others.
Personal daily prayer is a source of strength and joy because we know that God hears and responds to our requests:
Matthew 6:6 - But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.
There are other regular/consistent times of prayer besides personal prayer. Many churches have regular prayer meetings where members gather together to pray and intercede for others. There are also prayers lifted up during normal weekly church services and prayers offered up in the home. All of these are examples of consistent prayer.
A consistent spirit of prayer is necessary since we are people who live in constant need of our King. Let’s face it - we are constantly surrounded by temptation, constantly exposed to trouble/affliction, and in constant need of the necessities of life. We are in constant battle with the forces of darkness and in constant need of spiritual growth. Basically, we are fully dependent upon our Savior for all things at all times. Therefore, it only makes sense that we should be consistent/ceaseless in our prayers.
Perseverance: To persevere is to persist, to continue, to steadily pursue a course of action without giving up.
To pray with perseverance is to continually pray in faith though the answer we seek has not yet manifested. It may seem as though that answer will never come. It may seem like nothing is happening in the situation, but still we pray earnestly and fervently. We pray in faith, knowing that God is at work, even when we, from our limited perspective, don’t see it. When we pray with perseverance, God will reward us at the proper time (Luke 18:6-8).
To pray with perseverance is to know what God says in his word, to grab a hold of that word/promise and to never let go no matter what, knowing that God binds himself by his word.
I Thessalonians 5:18 - …give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Paul now moves on to the topic of thanksgiving. It is our Christian duty to be thankful to God in all the seasons of life, those that are favorable/prosperous as well as those that are adverse.
Thanksgiving, however, is different from rejoicing.
As we already noted, rejoicing is a state of joy/hope/expectation because we know that God is accomplishing something in our lives in all circumstances, both good and bad.
Thanksgiving is the act of rendering gratitude for favors or mercies; it is the acknowledgement or celebration of divine goodness.
Thankfulness begins when we understand that our blessings have come from God. For example, you may have a great job. While you contributed to that by training/qualifying yourself for that position and being a good employee, ultimately it was God who gave you that blessing. The Lord makes this very clear in his address to the children of Israel:
Deuteronomy 8:17-18 – Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.
In other words, it was ultimately God who gave you the opportunity to receive training, the money to pay for the training, the mental and/or physical ability to complete the training, and continued health to stay on the job.
In every situation in our lives, we can trace our blessings back to God. This is the first step in being thankful.
Next, we must have some value for what is received. Are you glad for your material possessions (car, house, jewelry, tools, etc)? Do you value good relationships? Are you grateful for your spouse and children? Do you appreciate your good health?
What about spiritual blessings – salvation, peace, spiritual gifts, the indwelling of Holy Spirit, the word of God, etc? Do you truly value these things? 
If we don’t have value for something, there is no way we can be grateful for it. So be sure to take time to think about your blessings and how much they mean to you.
Third, we must have a sense of God’s goodness as well as our own unworthiness. In other words, we need to acknowledge that God has given us amazing blessings which we do not deserve. Because of our sin, we were entitled to nothing but death and destruction. But because of his love and goodness he has heaped blessing after blessing after blessing upon us.
When taken together, these three steps will result in spontaneous thanksgiving.
What about unbelievers? Based on what we know, we would NOT expect them to be especially thankful. In fact, we would expect them to be unthankful. Scripture confirms this to be true:
Romans 1:21 – For although they [wicked people] knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Scripture also tells us that just before the return of Christ, unbelievers will be characterized by being unthankful (II Timothy 3:2).
By contrast, it is the mark of a true Christian to be thankful to God for all the blessings we enjoy:
Colossians 2:6-7 – Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Ephesians 5:20 - … giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian who is constantly rejoicing and constantly praying will have no difficulty in constantly finding reasons (both spiritual and temporal) to give thanks to God, even in the midst of adversity.
Paul then remarks that ‘this is the will of God’. Scholars have a difference of opinion on what he was referring to. Some believe he was referring exclusively to giving thanks in everything. But others believe Paul was referring to the broader passage; he was linking together the three things we studied in today’s post – rejoicing, praying and giving thanks in all circumstances. Those who hold this view believe that all three of these Christian duties are the will of God for us.
Paul also tells us that this is the will of God ‘in Christ Jesus’. Paul is saying that the will of God (either thanksgiving or rejoicing/prayer/thanksgiving) was revealed and exemplified in Christ.
It is certainly true that we would have no knowledge of the will of God outside of Christ. It was Jesus who became the Mediator between God and man by his death and resurrection. Only through him are we reconciled with the Father and able to receive/understand his will for us.
Furthermore, Jesus was our perfect example of giving thanks to God in all situations, whether easy or difficult.
Let me offer you some encouragement, relief and strength:
In today’s post, we discussed rejoicing, prayer and thanksgiving.
There is no greater relief in life than prayer – it allows us to cast our burdens on the Lord, to obtain forgiveness/grace, to offer God sacrifices of praise/worship, to find deliverance for temptation, to forgive others and to request the necessities of life.
We can pray confidently, knowing that there is no burden that is too big for God. There is no problem that is too complex for him to solve. There is no lack that he is unable to supply. There is no wisdom that he cannot impart to us. There is nothing that he cannot heal or resurrect. 
Consistent, daily communion with God via prayer is one of the biggest blessings we enjoy as believers. Just think – YOU have the opportunity to have an audience with the King of kings and Lord of lords right now!
As we commune with God in ceaseless prayer, our understanding of him and his ways increases. We begin to glimpse just how much he loves us and just how much he has done for us. Every answered prayer encourages us in our faith and gives us yet another reason to be thankful.
Prayerful communion with God also helps us to rejoice in all circumstances. As we offer praise and worship to the Lord, we remind ourselves that God is omniscient, sovereign, omnipotent and immutable. He is just and righteous. He is love. He is our Father and he is 100% capable of keeping ALL of his promises to us. We can rejoice at all times, because our joy comes from him, not from our circumstances.
Rejoicing in the Lord during difficult times gives us the strength and encouragement to stand firm until we see victory!