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Rejoice in the Lord always

Philippians 4:4-14; Habakkuk 3:3-6, 17-19

November 23, 2025

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I’ve mentioned before that my mother died suddenly when I was 12 years old. It was only five or six weeks before Thanksgiving, so when my sisters came home from their respective colleges, it was painfully obvious that there was an empty chair at our Thanksgiving table. 

 

That was very hard for all of us, although I suspect it was probably a bit harder on my sisters since my Dad, my brother and I had been experiencing that absence on a daily basis while they were away and so we’d had a little more time to adjust to that sad reality. 

 

How do you offer thanks to God when your whole world has been ripped apart? No matter how much we loved her or how much we missed her, we could do absolutely nothing to bring her back to us. So the answer we ultimately found to that question was to change our perspective on her death. 

 

Instead of focusing on the way her life had been cut short, we chose to alter our perspective and focus on the blessing of having been privileged to have been part of her life during those 48 years. We were blessed to have shared her love and laughter, her wisdom and her joy. And those things would always be incorporated into our lives. They can never be taken away from us. 

 

In this country, when we think of giving thanks, we tend to focus on possessions. Once we think beyond our family and friends, we typically jump immediately to offering gratitude for our homes and incomes, our comforts and our days off. Surely those are all good gifts to be thankful for, but our gratitude toward God should go far beyond those things. 

 

The Bible offers examples of three different styles of thanksgiving. Yes, there are examples of people praising God for home and health, food and drink and the basic joy of being alive. But that is not the only type of thanksgiving we see portrayed. 

 

Biblical scholars consider the 15th chapter of Exodus to contain the oldest writing in the entire Bible. In that chapter, first Moses and then Moses’ sister, Miriam, sing a song of praise to God for their rescue from the Egyptians after God had enabled the Israelites to safely cross the Red Sea by parting the waters for them. 

 

They were thanking God for what they did not receive — that is, for sparing them. That’s another form of thanksgiving being modeled for us. A third form may be seen in those passages in which people offer their praise and thanks to God even in the midst of dire circumstances. 

 

One example may be seen in what is my personal favorite Thanksgiving passage of all time. It’s our lesson from Habakkuk, which says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” 

 

That returns me to my earlier question, “How do you offer thanks to God when your whole world has been ripped apart?” In light of the history of the Hebrew people, who throughout much of history have stumbled from one of disaster after another, it is highly instructive that they often demonstrated hope and gratitude to God regardless of the circumstances they found themselves in.

 

Of course, that was not always without questioning their fate or even arguing with God. However, those who were able to cling to their faith in all situations would find that that very faith provided them with the means to carry on despite the suffering they were forced to endure. 

 

Isn’t that what my family discovered, too, when we slowly moved away from my mother’s graveside emotionally? Paul offers similar advice to that of Habakkuk in our passage from Philippians, when he writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” 

 

What Paul has in mind when he gave that command was neither knee-jerk optimism nor stoic pessimism. After all, Paul’s life as a Christian missionary was riddled with shipwrecks, stonings, beatings and imprisonment. In fact, he wrote this letter while he was in prison in Rome, awaiting the trial that would lead to his execution.

 

So how was he able to find and maintain a positive attitude — a stance of rejoicing — in the face of his pain? Here’s how the Rev. Nancy Bresette explains it:  

 

“In this season of Thanksgiving it is important to remember it is from our awareness of God’s hand at work in our lives that our sense of gratitude springs. Have you notice how a spirit of Thanksgiving is often found in totally unexpected places? That is because it has little to do with where a person lives, or how much he or she has, but rather upon a person’s spiritual attitude.” 

 

In other words, Paul advises us to keep a clear eye on the world around us, but continue to rejoice, remembering that behind everything is God, whose love and compassion and control are unshakable and sure. And knowing that, as Paul tells the Romans, God can wring good out of any circumstance. 

 

Therefore, Paul can honestly write, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” If Paul can say that in spite of the dire consequences facing him, surely we can rejoice in God no matter what our own circumstances may be. We, too, can trust in the loving nature of God and in God’s genuine care for us.

 

As our one-time First Pres student pastor Kevin Freese put it, “It is ‘in Christ,’ Paul insists, that we will finally experience this miraculous gift of the ‘peace of God.’ As long as we are in Christ, the peace of God will guard our hearts and guide our minds — God’s peace is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. Such peace cannot be self-generated; it comes from God alone; it is God’s gift to us in a difficult world.” 

 

In other words, the answer to my question, “How do you offer thanks to God when your whole world has been ripped apart?” is to place all of your hope in God, regardless of your present circumstances. Then offer your praise to God for his love and grace, his holiness and goodness. Finally, thank God for his promise to walk with you, supporting you as you journey through your most joyous and your most painful moments. 

 

Isn’t that what led to the first thanksgiving holiday ever celebrated on American soil? 

 

Here is how Anglican priest G. D. Rosenthal briefly describes the origins of that event:  

 

“When the New England colonies were first planted, the settlers endured many privations and difficulties and used constantly to lay their distresses before God in days of fasting and prayer. Continual meditation on such topics tended to make them gloomy and discontented, and disposed to return home. At last, when it was proposed to appoint still another day of penitence and humiliation, a common-sense old colonist said he thought they had brooded over their misfortunes quite long enough, and that it seemed high time that they should remember all God’s mercies to them… He proposed, therefore, that instead of a fast, they should keep a feast of thanksgiving.” 

 

That shift in perspective made all the difference, giving them hope to endure, knowing that God was with them through every painful moment of suffering and trusting that better days would lie ahead. 

 

Another example may be seen in the life of Gladys Aylward, who was a British missionary to China in the 1930s. When the Japanese army invaded the region of China where she lived, she decided to lead more that a hundred orphans over the mountains toward Free China with the help of only one assistant and while she herself was both wounded and sick. 

 

Here’s how the book The Hidden Price of Greatness, describes what happen on that journey. “During Gladys’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng…she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she face the morning with no hope of reaching safety.

 

“A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. 

 

“‘But I am not Moses,’ Gladys cried in desperation. 

 

“‘Of course you aren’t,’ the girl said, ‘but Jehovah is still God!’

 

“When Gladys and the orphans made it through, they proved once again that no matter how inadequate and anxious we feel, God is still God, and we can trust in Him.”  

 

In today’s New Testament lesson, Paul is telling the Philippians — and us — to celebrate regardless of what our current circumstances may be, regardless of how discouraged or depressed we may become. In the best of times and in the worst of times, God remains in control. Therefore, nothing that happens can remove us from his love and his protection.

 

We may have to endure things that we would prefer to avoid — things like terrorism and war, corruption and crime, hurricanes and fires, earthquakes and floods, grief and illness — but through it all, God holds us and gives us the strength we need to endure and even thrive in a world that continues to spin on through all the good and bad.

 

And so, even though there will be times in our lives when we are feeling low or when we question how anyone could expect us to give thanks; yet, even in those moments we will be far more likely to both endure and even thrive if we take Paul’s advice. 

 

That is, if we raise our voices in praise and thanksgiving to God; not just because we can make a lengthy list of blessings God has given us, but because God IS who he is. God is our Creator. God is faithful and loving. God cares about each one of us individually. 

 

In summing up the types of ideas I’ve been sharing with you, Graham Fowler writes, “In praising God for who he is and what he does, we are not trying to deny that pain exists in the world and in our lives. But by focusing our attention on God and all his glory, our eyes, and our hearts, are lifted up out of our crises and problems.

 

“[…] And as we focus our attention upon God and his glory, our cares in this world will fade and fade and the joy of our salvation will grow and grow, until we can raise our voices in praise to God, crying ‘Hallelujah!’” Amen.

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by Jim McCrea