Have you noticed it’s not natural or easy to rejoice in trials? Yet the Bible commands us to do it. How do we truly rejoice when we’re afflicted without being fake or insincere? Learn how in this message. 

<p>Have you noticed it’s not natural or easy to rejoice in trials? Yet the Bible commands us to do it. How do we truly rejoice when we’re afflicted without being fake or insincere? Learn how in this message. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Freedom Health Ministries

Gabriel Arruda

How to Rejoice in Trials

So if you could turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 4 and verse 4, and this is called how to rejoice in trials.

And we're gonna go to a Bible verse that to be honest with you for a while, kind of disturbed me.

And there's a song that goes along with this right?

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.

Like when you get into a bad car accident?

When your boss tells you, hey I'm sorry we've got to let you go.

When your landlord says, you know what, we sold the place, you got 60 days.

The Bible says rejoice in the Lord always.

But have you noticed, maybe you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or maybe, I don't know, there's just something going on in your life, and if you feel bad, sometimes you just feel bad.

And you can't just snap your fingers and make yourself feel good.

And sometimes it feels impossible to change your feelings, especially when you're down in a funk.

And upon first read, what it kind of seems like this verse is doing, what it seems like God is doing, is kind of what parents do with their kids sometimes.

You know, imagine the family is going to, they've been invited to a birthday party, they're going to a birthday party with the friends of 1 of the kids, and something happens in the car right there, and the kid's all upset, and I'm not happy, and the parents turn around and say, listen, we're going to this birthday party, you put a smile on your face, they were nice enough to invite us, you're gonna have a good time, now wipe that frown off and be happy.

Have you ever seen a situation like that before?

It kinda seems like this is what God is doing, you know, rejoicing the Lord always.

Really, when I got diagnosed with cancer?

You know, I remember when Jennifer and I were in AAFCO 1 time, and for those of you who don't know what that is, it's an evangelism training class that we went through that Amazing Facts holds.

And we're going through AAFCO, and you know, this is like, almost like pre-seminary, and we're on the way there and something happened.

We got in a fight on the way to AFCO, and it didn't get resolved by the time we got to the parking lot.

And we pull in, and I'm totally not happy, she's not happy, And I remember she looks over at me and she goes, are you gonna look like that when you go in there?

I was like, yes I am gonna look like this.

I was like, I am not smiling, I am not happy.

I'm gonna be my authentic self is what I'm going to do.

And I couldn't just, I kind of tried, but you know, people could tell, right?

People could tell, what happened to them?

You know, there's a sequence of how things go in mental health, and when God says, rejoice in the Lord, That's a feeling, isn't it?

God is actually commanding us to feel an emotion.

And when it comes to mental health, there's a sequence.

And feelings are just number 3 in a sequence.

Before you feel something, what do you do?

So we feel the way we do is because we think the way we do, right?

If you think positive things, you have positive feelings.

If you think negative things, you're probably going to have negative feelings.

And then after feelings, when you feel a certain way, that affects what?

When you feel bad like you know me going to AFCO trying to put a smile on my face but like you know you act how you feel.

So the trick is feeling differently right?

But in order to feel differently you have to do what differently according to this?

But there's even a step before your thoughts.

Okay, the way you see things, but I heard...

We think the thoughts we think because we have the beliefs we have.

Imagine there's a couple and they're walking down the road and then out of a neighborhood comes a big black dog and it's running at them.

Person A freaks out, oh no, no, there's a big black dog.

And person B says, oh, come here, come here.

How to Rejoice in Trials

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