We want to share with you Five Good Reasons To Rejoice. This list is by no means exhaustive; but it’s a good start in cultivating joy in our hearts.

1. Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

In Luke 10 Jesus sent 70 of His followers out into ministry. The results were fantastic. They came back to the Lord full of joy, talking about the healings and deliverances that had occurred: all the wonderful manifestations of God’s power that had happened. And Jesus affirmed them in all that; but, He brought them back to the most foundational reason of all for rejoicing.

“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:19-20

We don’t know what is going on in your life; but, if you’re a Christian you have many reasons to be rejoicing. Before we believed in Christ as our Savior we were headed in the wrong direction and didn’t even know it. Without the cross and without God’s divine intervention in our lives, we would be lost forever. But His mercy endures forever! We had no power to save ourselves. But God did intervene. He did spare you and that is the bedrock of your gratitude. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Meditate on God’s mercy. Meditate on God’s goodness. Consider the magnitude of what He has done for you by forgiving you of your sins and making you one of His dear children. “…rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

2.Rejoice because God is providing for all your daily needs.

We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” and He answers that cry on a daily basis. Look with us in Psalm 103. This Psalm begins with a command toward gratitude and toward expressing that gratitude.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

We often forget or simply take for granted the good things He is doing for us. Every time when we take a breath, we have good cause to be grateful. God provided the oxygen. God gave us the strength to draw that breath. God gave us the lungs to process that oxygen into our blood stream. He gave us another heartbeat to flow the life in that blood throughout our body. Every time we inhale and exhale a series of God given systems intervene on our behalf.

In Psalm 103:3 are just a couple of God’s benefits – help us to remember. “Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.”

We should be so glad, that as a Christian, we can go to God and receive forgiveness. “If we confess our sins,” the Apostle John wrote, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Think about what it cost God for that forgiveness to be available to you?

“…Who heals all your diseases.” Some of us need to believe God for physical strength each and every day. Without His healing influence we would not make it. But He is Jehovah-Rapha, The Lord our Healer. He is supplying life to our physical bodies.

There are many times and we do not even realize it when God intervenes in special ways and takes care of us.

“Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Ps 103:4-5

We like the attitude of the old Puritan minister who prayed over the meal when his family had only a tiny fish and a few potatoes to eat. “Lord,” he prayed, “we bless thee that thou hast ransacked sea and land to find food for us this day.”

3.Rejoice because you are privileged to be identified with Him in persecution.

Jesus said, “…a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you….”

We read from the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt 5:10-12). “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad….” Why? “…for great is your reward in heaven.”

Fifty years ago churches sang a lot about heaven. People lived in anticipation of the coming of the Lord and of their heavenly reward. Over the years that has been ridiculed and minimized. The Word of Faith Movement put a lot of emphasis on believing for material things in the now, in contrast to what was called “pie in the sky” religion that only hoped for something in the eternal future. Some teaching was needed about exercising our faith in the now.

We went from one imbalance to the other imbalance. We do need to believe for the kingdom of God to be expressed in answer to prayer in the here and now. However, we had better come back to some of that so called “pie in the sky” religion as well. The Early Church did not have much material goods to celebrate the way we have had in America. They had the power of God in their lives and they had a holy appreciation for their “reward in heaven.”

Moses had to make a choice between earthly comfort and “pie in the sky” reward. Heb. 11:24-26 “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”

“…for he looked to the reward.” We need to get our eyes more on that reward. To be honest with you, we are so busy just trying to make it, that we seldom meditate on my heavenly destiny. But that is one way to stir our hearts toward praise. “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One look at His dear face, all sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race, ‘till we see Christ.”

Paul wrote in Rom 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” We need to do some of that kind of considering. We need to gaze into heaven and believe God’s promises.

4.Rejoice because your suffering is not in vain.

James says, “…count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4).

This is linked with the previous point, but here we want to focus on what God is working in our character through the experiences we go through.

The Potter is making it count. He is molding and shaping us through our experiences.

“And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28 KJV).

Our Christian lives have a purpose and is moving towards a glorious destiny.

In 2Cor. 4 Paul talks about the challenges he was facing in life.

“8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Perhaps you can identify with some or all of that? But then he puts it all in perspective in verse 16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

If all we looked at is our current trials—if all we focused on is the hardships of today, we would lose heart. If we will turn our eyes from the temporal and see the eternal—we will be able to rejoice the way Paul rejoiced. If hard times come to America, we will need a more eternal perspective than we have had in the past.

5.Rejoice because Jesus is coming back.

In the end we win. We win because we are with the Winner.

God rules over the earth no matter how crazy and chaotic things get around us. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.…” He sits on the circle of the earth—all its inhabitants are as grasshoppers. The nations are as a drop in the bucket and are counted as small dust in the scales (Isa. 40:22, 15).

The Early Church reminded themselves of the Sovereignty of God as they prayed together. They quoted Psalm 2 “Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision.”

God is not nervous about anything that is happening in the world. He sees the end from the beginning. We watch our leaders make Pacific Trade Agreement that may wipe out the middle class in America. We watch them negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran and North Korea that may be the prelude for WWIII. In the natural, we could freak out.

But God! God will have the final say in it all. God just might send a worldwide revival that turns everything around. Oh for another Great Awakening in America! That’s probably the only hope. But it is a hope and it is a possibility. Either way, we win.

We live with our eye toward heaven, “…looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” The heathen may rage, the Devil may do his worst, the Antichrist may arise and work all kinds of havoc. But in the end King Jesus rules. In the end He puts down all wickedness and rebellion. In the end every knee bows to Him.

We do not know for sure the timing of it all but this we do know.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” 1 Thess 4:16

Therefore rejoice, and again I say rejoice!