Captivate Me

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again - Rejoice!

~Philippians 4:4

This verse has always stuck out to me for some reason. Clearly when Paul wrote about rejoicing in the Lord, he was serious about it. It seems like a pretty good concept if you think about it superficially: Of course I'll rejoice in the Lord! He's done so many great things for me. Here's where the kicker comes: Always. It's the always that gets me. As much as I like to think of myself as an upbeat person, always rejoicing in the Lord is an impossibility with my efforts alone. There are a couple of reasons why:

-Rejoice: Sometimes, I just don't feel like rejoicing. I can mentally know that the Lord stepping in with His grace and saving me from my sin is literally the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can know that the Lord is the love of my life, and I am utterly spoiled to know of His constant affection towards me. When I'm tired after a long day, or when everything in my life just seems to be going haywire, rejoicing doesn't come naturally, which leads me to think that it has to be more than a mere mood.

-In the Lord: Ah-ha! Here we get some clarity it seems. The reason why I can't rejoice is because maybe I'm not trying to rejoice in the Lord, but instead in outside circumstances which change. If I can just get myself so that I am centrally focused on the Lord, the rejoicing should come into place. Kicker number 2 (and somewhat of a confession): I am often not captivated by and centrally focused on the Lord. I really like how C.S. Lewis describes this state of being captivated by all but Him:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Sometimes, I don't think that I can physically comprehend how much more wonderful and captivating the Lord is than the things around me, and so instead of trying harder to see, I turn to the things around me that are easy. I meditate on the positive attributes of the good things in my life (many blessings from the Lord) instead of pushing myself to be captivated by the Lord's character. And then when earthly things shift, rejoicing seems impossible. 

I think the only solution to this dilemma is this: we need to ask the Lord to change our hearts so that we are primarily captivated by His presence and character. We need to honestly ask the Lord if we are loving Him or His blessings (for me, I can notice this when it doesn't bother me that I'm not spending time alone with the Lord). 

My challenge for us today is to spend a day focusing on His character and presence, and in doing so, rejoice in all He is. Also a little song (per usual) to go with the theme - Captivate Us by Watermark.