Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS......

Some leaves with things for which we are thankful "thankful for food, our families,,,,,,"
As Antonio, a fellow staff at B2B, shared at Rio 1 during a thanksgiving teaching, it really hit me. He was reading Philippians 4. "Rejoice in the Lord always". It was as if these word echoed in my mind. He was stressing the other part of the scripture to lift our prayers up with thanksgiving. That's another difficult thing, but I couldn't get past rejoice always. Really it started thinking about me. This year has been tough and I have felt many times that I didn't feel close to rejoicing. Then my mind went to another. You see I was sitting near a women, Siliva, whose house had burnt down three days before. She lives a life of bad choices but she chose to come hear God's word today. Today of all days, this is what the Lord had for her? Rejoice? As I reflect more on this I realize that this is what He had for me. I was forced to look at the scripture again. Phil 4 says Rejoice in the LORD always. Rejoice in the LORD, not in my circumstances. With the Lord in mind I can ask for what I need with thanksgiving that HE is big enough to do it. Thanksgiving that He is here with me. Thanksgiving that He hears me. Because of who Jesus is, I can rejoice always and can share this hope with my friend who hurt as she lost her home and everything they owed.
The cool thing is what God had for me and for Silvia. We had the opportunity to be grateful amidst our pain by focusing on the Lord and what He has given us. Then as the Lord would have it we made blankets and Silvia went home with something warm. I'm excited to see with what else the Lord will bless Silvia. Because of who He is, He is worthy of our rejoicing.