Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:12, NKJV).
Merciful God, it is by Your mercy that we are able to continue on this journey through this valley of tears; because Your mercies are “new every morning.” When the going gets tough help us to remember that You are a righteous Judge, and righteousness will prevail! For this we thank You and give You praise in the blessed name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
We have come to the end of the Happiness Code, at least for now. I divided the last beatitude into two parts and today we are going to comment on the latter part: what should be our attitude in the face of persecution of any kind – whether it be physical or verbal. The Savior says that we should rejoice and be glad, right? Wrong! He says we should rejoice and be exceedingly glad! The recommended reaction is not exactly what we would choose. Nevertheless, the Savior says that is what we should do. Let us receive the strength we need from Him, and by His grace, let us do it for His glory!
Exceedingly is a superlative form of doing something, an extreme manner of doing things. If Jesus believes that it is the best way to react in the face of persecution, wouldn’t He have a good reason for it? After all, it is He who made us; He knows how we function best. So there must be a greater blessing to be reaped. I pray that as we study His Word today the reason might be revealed to us.
The book of Proverbs is always a good place to look for explanatory texts. Let us look at some verses there:
“A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken” (Proverbs 15:13). In Spanish we have a folk saying that goes something like this: “Al mal tiempo, buena cara.” Translated: “To bad times, a good face.” This is just the opposite of what the first part of this Proverb is saying, but if applied, it could prevent the second half of the proverb from happening! Let me explain.
We human beings do not know just how “fearfully and wonderfully” we are made! We have not even skimmed the surface of that statement of truth! Let us analyze the last statement I made in the paragraph above: The proverb is saying that if our hearts are merry we will have happy faces. The folk saying declares that when things are bad we should show a happy face. It has been proven that when the muscles in our faces are formed in a smile, it affects our mood, positively! And if our mood changes from sadness to gladness, it could keep our spirits from breaking!
“All the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast” (15). There is so much wisdom in the Word of God! If we allow the attitudes and opinions of others to affect us, especially in a negative manner, we will live in a state of sadness (afflicted). But if we allow our hearts to dwell on God and His goodness our lives will be a continuous state of joyful peacefulness (feast) even in the not so good times!
“A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones” (17:22). Many of us know that that is nothing but the truth! If we were to cultivate a merry heart by allowing God to both put and keep HIs joy within our hearts, perhaps, we would be able to throw out all, or at the very least, some, of the medications we are taking! And if we would dwell in His PRESENCE where there is “fullness of joy, and at His right hand pleasures forevermore” many of our aches and pains would cease to be!
As I read these texts it was very evident that the Savior saw our need of an exceedingly big dose of joy and rejoicing to get us beyond many of the trials and persecutions that come our way from time to time. So rejoice and be exceedingly glad! You are in good company, “for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT ADVISING ANYONE WHO READ THESE WORDS OR HEAR THEM, AS COMING FROM ME, TO THROW OUT THEIR MEDICATIONS.