Can You Rejoice Always?
NOVEMBER 29
Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-18
In Habakkuk’s day, there was an economic recession. There were no cows in the barn, no harvest in the fields. “Yet …” he writes. Oh, how I love that “yet” in verse 18. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Where was his joy? In the Lord, not circumstances.
If circumstances are what gives you your joy, you can’t say “rejoice always,” because circumstances change. You might lose your job, your health, your friends, or your prestige. But Habakkuk said, “Yet will I joy in the God of my salvation.”
There’s one way to find out where you’re getting your joy. If it’s from your job, we can take your job and see if you still have joy. If it’s from your health, if your health fails, see if you still have joy.
The only joy anyone can have is in the Lord, because He never changes. Your joy can be threatened if you get it anywhere else. It’s not wrong to joy in your health, your job, your friends. But that kind of joy can be threatened. You need a joy which supersedes that. Psalm 16:11: says, “Thou will show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy.”
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