{"id":2316,"date":"2012-01-02T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=2316"},"modified":"2012-01-01T17:01:56","modified_gmt":"2012-01-02T00:01:56","slug":"smile-its-gods-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/smile-its-gods-will\/","title":{"rendered":"SMILE-IT’S GOD’S WILL!"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I was growing up, many of my experiences revolved around the church.\u00a0 It was twice on Sunday, Wednesday night plus special services thrown in for good measure.\u00a0 Most of the people were a great example, but then there was the woman on the other side of the church that looked like she had been baptized in vinegar!<\/p>\n

I can almost hear some of you yell out that you had the same woman in your congregation.\u00a0 Sadly, there always seems to be at least one in every crowd.\u00a0 They frown and complain about everything. We kids imitated the way she carried on and the horrible faces she would make.\u00a0 There may have been joy in her soul, but she did a good job of hiding it from her face and with her words!<\/p>\n

What should the true Christian look and act like?\u00a0 According to this passage in 1 Thessalonians, our face should express joy at all times.\u00a0 Wait a minute!\u00a0 Did I just say that?\u00a0 Well it wasn’t me it was what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.<\/p>\n

Be joyful always.<\/strong>\u00a0 That does not say sometimes or when we feel like it, but we are to be joyful always.\u00a0 Even in when we have just received devastating news we should be joyful.\u00a0 Not because we are like spiritual robots, but because we have the Lord in our hearts to comfort and guide us. If I stopped here it would be like leaving you in outer space. There is more we are also told, Pray continually.<\/strong>\u00a0 What are we going to do about working, sleeping and the other normal activities of life? Praying continually means that we are to maintain a close relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 If we can text one another we can pray.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a third step in today’s Scripture-we are to, Give thanks in all circumstances<\/strong>. This is similar to the first directive for us to always be joyful.<\/em> It is our acknowledgment that we agree with what God is doing with our life. All means . . . ALL!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!<\/p>\n

—Pastor Cecil<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. When I was growing up, many of my experiences revolved around the church.\u00a0 It was twice on Sunday, Wednesday night plus special services thrown in for good measure.\u00a0 Most of the people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-thessalonians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}