Don't you just want to rejoice and shout for joy every time you think about Jesus! I heard a sermon a few months ago about joy and at the time it didn't sink in but I had the CD and listened to it a couple of times in the last week and what a revelation I received! This, and a chapter on joy in a book I'm reading (that points you to The Word), simply put, helped me see that joy is a command. Never thought of joy as a command before. Philippians 4:4 is one place we read about joy and Paul does state his comment about joy in a commanding sort-of-way. Also in I Thessalonians 5:16 we read another command to rejoice. It simply says, "Rejoice always..." If you read on to verses 17 and 18 you see the command to "pray without ceasing" and "in everything give thanks." Maybe you have looked at those verses as a command before but I hadn't - WOW!
I don't know about you, but I'm not always rejoicing. That has changed as of right now. This CD by Mark Hankins that I was listening to took me to Leviticus and The Feast of Tabernacles. In verse 40 of chapter 23 God adds to His instructions to Moses, "...and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days." Could you imagine the difference in our world and our lives if we would just start by rejoicing for seven days?! Joy is contagious and I believe once we'd start we'd not stop for nothing because the joy of the Lord is our strength and we delight in Him!
On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being a low-level rejoicing and ten being the highest level of rejoicing, where are you on the scale? Mark Hankins says if you have trouble just smiling you are at level one. His comment for level ten? Only one He could think. That was David and he was at level 10 with joy. What did David do? He was so delighted in having the ark of the LORD brought to the City of David that he "danced before the LORD with all his might." That's a number ten joy according to Mark Hankins and I agree with Mark. David was so filled with joy and delight that his shouting and dancing and "leaping and whirling before the LORD" embarrassed Saul's daughter, Michal, to the point of her despising David in her heart. That didn't bother David. He simply put on some music and danced some more!
Let's dance!!!
II Samuel 6:1-23
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