Rejoice in the Lord alway | Women's Grace Devotional

Rejoice in the Lord alway

Phil 4:4 in the KJB says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."

So, first of all, what does the word "alway" mean? It means "all the way, all the time, forever." Always means "at every time, on every occasion". Some Bible versions change the word alway to always but this changes the meaning of the verse.

We are told in Phillipians 4:4 to rejoice all through all of our sufferings and life experiences and then we will even rejoice in eternity! We rejoice because no matter what we face in life, we can remember that we have a blessed hope (the rapture and eternity in heaven with the Lord), we are saved and justified in God's sight, we are complete in Christ, and we have all spiritual blessings in Christ! This is why we can rejoice even when we are experiencing suffering. 

Verses 4-7 of Phillipians 4 helps us to understand this even more.

"4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

When we 1)rejoice 2)Be moderate in all things 3)Be careful for nothing and 4)Pray unceasingly, we will experience the peace of God. All believers have peace WITH God but we can experience the peace OF God when we do these things. All of these things require us to be in God's word daily. We rejoice when we remember God's promises to us in His word rightly divided. We are moderate in all things because we have sound grace doctrine working in our inner man. We are "careful for nothing" when we are more heavenly minded because of God's word being built up in our inner man. We pray without ceasing, which means to really meditate and think over the Bible verses and talk to God about it in our minds and hearts, focusing on His will for us today. This all brings us peace of mind. If you want to rejoice in the Lord alway, spend some time daily in God's word rightly divided.