Always

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  [Phil 4:4-7]

Rejoice always Paul?  Do not be anxious about anything?  In everything by prayer?  Really Paul, just exactly what does that look like in "real life"?


And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,  [Acts 16:23-25]

Loved and Accepted

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16-18

We (my wife and I) were talking recently about people and that it seems that fundamentally everyone wants to be loved and accepted.  It occurs to me that that is exactly what God did when He sent Jesus.  From the very familiar verses above we see:

For God so loved ... and 

... not .. to condemn the world

God's love is unconditional.  We are loved and accepted by God.