“But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly, there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone‘s chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awakening from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice saying, Do yourself no harm for we are all here. And then he called for a light, ran in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas and brought them out saying, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:25)
“This is a wonderful New Testament story about the power of rejoicing in the midst of adversity. Here are two men, Paul and Silas, placed in the penitentiary in the lower dungeon, and at midnight when most would be complaining to the Nth degree, they are singing praises to God.
Quickly, the point is this, that your joy as a Christian should never depend on your circumstances. Why? Because joy comes from God. And the joy that comes from God is never controlled by your circumstances. Therefore, you have the ability to be joyful if you have the willingness to be joyful. Some of you are not joyful because you‘re not willing to be joyful, and you‘re not joyful because your moroseness -- said in another way -- your sour-puss personality is the methodology with which you control other people. They see your haggard face, and they know it‘s time to bow and pay homage to you because you‘re not feeling well. If they were in their right mind, they would totally ignore you until you decided to act like a Christian and have joy.
Joseph was in the penitentiary under false accusations. If anyone had a right to be angry, to be bitter, to be resentful, it was Joseph. When he was put into the penitentiary, he had such a positive attitude to his environment that he became the administrator of the jail. And then when the baker and the cup maker had a dream, they came to Joseph and told him the dream. Joseph interpreted the dream. Had Joseph been your ordinary type of whiney-hiney Christian, he would have said, you guys interpret your own dreams. You have problems. I‘ve got problems. My brothers sold me. I‘m in here, and I‘ve been sucking my thumb for 12 years. You can suck your thumb. But because he chose to rejoice in the circumstances, and interpreted the dreams, he was promoted from the dungeons to the diadem. In one day, he went from the keeper of the jail to the second most powerful person on the earth because he chose to rejoice.
Hence the phrase, ‘rejoice by choice.’ May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of the Word.”
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