You're listening to Encounter, a simple daily podcast made possible by listeners like

you.

We hope to help you discover sacred moments in the middle of ordinary days.

If you would enjoy more seasonal and topical meditations, I encourage you to download

the encountering piece mobile app, where all of the meditations are free, as they should

be.

Do you want to celebrate and live a joy-filled life?

Well everyone certainly does, but is it really possible to walk around always cheering

with a perpetual smile on your face?

It's not a sin to be sad, it's not depraved to be depressed.

So what did Paul mean in Philippians 4 when he said to rejoice always and again rejoice?

You may never achieve the goal on this side of heaven, but you can elect to try.

You can choose to rejoice, but it will require supernatural power.

The theme of this guided audio meditation from Philippians 4 will remind you of both the

obedience of rejoicing and the emotion of celebrating, of obeying when you don't have the

heart to rejoice and feeling the desire to rejoice no matter the call to obey.

So to begin your meditation, settle into a place of receiving for a moment.

Just relax your body in your mind, even your eyes will be together for about 15 minutes.

But begin now by slowly turning over your palms and placing them in your lap, turning

them over as a symbolic gesture of your desire to lay your concerns down before God.

Inwardly you may pray, Lord, I give to you my anger towards them.

I release my fear of that.

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