A lifestyle of Celebration

Grace is not sloppy. Grace is the empowering favor of God. When you know God likes you good things happen. God celebrates us. We are celebrated in heaven. We are the cause for heaven's rejoicing. This frees our hearts to rejoice. He rejoices in us and we rejoice in him. It's the cycle of the kingdom. 

Rejoicing

in the scriptures there are multitudes of incredible verses. Some of them more important than others in their implications. As an example, exodus' exhortation to "never cook a young goat in it's mothers milk" pales in comparison to "believe on The Lord Jesus and you will be saved." So, there is a group of verses that consist of majority of what the bible teaches about prayer. I consider it the readers digest version. Here it is.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all things. 

What's the deal? 

Continual prayer without the moderating of rejoicing creates depressed and hopeless prayer. Real faith rejoices because it sees the end result. It can see the miracle, it can see the glory and it never lets go of God until there is a response. 

Thankfulness

Thankfulness is the backstop for stray pitches. Without the influence of thankfulness our hearts get mired in unbelief. Thankfulness reminds us of God's victories up till now and gives us strength for our impending new victories.