The Call To Celebrate!
Celebration is not something we only do when we’re happy.
Celebration is a posture to life – especially since we have a hope we can always celebrate with the Gospel.
Neal Samudre | YouVersion
The Call to Celebrate!
Celebrate Milestones and Progress
Years ago, I started researching joy—what it is, how it can help us, and how we can cultivate it in daily life.
The reason I did this was simple: God cares about joy.
After all, there’s a reason why joy is named as one of the first fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22.
Over time, I began to see just how much we sabotage joy.
One of the biggest ways is by not celebrating.
Joy is the satisfaction you feel when you pursue hope. As we pursue the hope we have in Christ, we reap joy.
Celebration is the act of calling attention to hope.
As Christians, we are called to celebrate because we have a hope that never runs dry.
More joy is available to us if we choose to celebrate hope.
Problem is, we don’t know how or what to celebrate in our daily lives.
As a result, we forget or forego celebration.
The first thing to always celebrate is milestones, or momentous events (like birthdays, holidays, achievements).
Now, we typically have no problem with this, and neither did the Jewish people in Scripture.
In Nehemiah 8, the people had just finished building the wall and are gathering to celebrate The Feast of Trumpets.
This was a day to rest (Numbers 29:1).
This is the gift of celebrating milestones: we get to rest and slow down the speed of life, so we can refresh the hope we have in God.
But in Nehemiah 8, we also see the people celebrate progress. This is what we often struggle with.
When the people are gathered together, they hear Ezra read the Scriptures.
And because they understand it, they realize how far they have fallen and how far they have to reach to get back to the standards of Scripture.
And so, they mourn.
In verses 9-10, however, Nehemiah encouraged the people not to mourn because it is a holy day.
And in verse 12, the people make a sudden shift. Now, they celebrate with joy.
What happened?
The verse states that the people celebrated because they now understood the words.
Instead of seeing how far they have left to go, they reframed their perspective to focus on how far they’ve come.
This gave them joy.
Oftentimes, we’re so critical on ourselves when we fall short, and never look at how far we’ve come.
When we celebrate how far we’ve come, we’re encouraged to go farther.
And When we only look at how far we have left to go, we’re encouraged to give up.
Today, you might be thinking you have nothing to celebrate in yourself.
But think about how far you’ve come!
Celebrate your progress. As you do this, the joy you reap will propel you forward.
The Call To Celebrate!
Nehemiah 8:1-12 KJV
[1] And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate;
and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.
[2] And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
[3] And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday,
before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
[4] And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose;
and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand;
and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
[5] And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up:
[6] and Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands:
and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
[7] Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah,
and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.
[8] So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
[9] And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people,
This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
[10] Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared:
for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
[11] So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved.
[12] And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth,
because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
The Call to Celebrate!
Celebrate Good News
I recently read a study that said sharing good news is one of the best things you could do for instant joy.
When a person shares their good news with someone, and that person responds enthusiastically, the positive feeling between both people increases.
And better yet, that positivity can spread up to three degrees of separation.
We don’t make a habit of sharing our good news with people.
Perhaps, We fear that we might somehow take away from their happiness and make them sadder.
And We fear that we might come across as bragging. Or, we fear others don’t want to hear our good news.
But both studies and the Bible show that we can only give a person joy if we share good news with them.
We see an example of this in Acts 8:26-39.
Philip shares the good news of Jesus to an Ethiopian eunuch he meets on the road.
The eunuch responds with enthusiasm and asks to be baptized.
As Philip disappears, the eunuch goes on his way rejoicing.
In the same way Philip gave joy to the eunuch with good news, we can give others joy when we share good news.
But it doesn’t end there. When you share good news, you also feel joy.
In John 4, after Jesus had shared the good news of Him being the Messiah to the woman at the well, Jesus talks with the disciples.
In verses 34-38, he tells the disciples to open their eyes and see the harvest.
He is talking about people who need to hear the good news of the Messiah.
In verse 36, Jesus says when they share the good news, both the sower and the reaper will have joy.
What does this mean?
It means, when we share the good news, we get to reap the joy of God’s work.
God has done the work, but He gives us the gift of reaping joy from His good work.
All we have to do is share the good news.
When we share the good news we have in Jesus, we celebrate our hope in God.
It benefits us and the other party. It takes nothing away from them, but it gives them everything.
If you want a practice of celebration, share the good news with the people in your life.
Then both you and the receiver will reap more joy.
The Call to Celebrate!
Celebrate People
When we don’t have joy, we navel gaze.
We stay stuck within our own perspective and cycle in negativity.
But people who have joy not only celebrate themselves, but they look around and celebrate other people.
We’re often quick to notice what we’ve done wrong.
And as we call attention to what we’ve done wrong, we notice what others have done wrong.
I believe that as we choose to celebrate people, we can learn to celebrate ourselves as well.
In the Bible, we see the heavens are always celebrating people.
In Luke 15:7, Jesus says Heaven has more joy over one sinner who repents than 99 people who don’t need to repent.
We see Heaven celebrating what one person has done right. We can do the same for the people in our lives.
The best picture of this is further down Luke 15 with the story of the Prodigal Son.
Jesus tells the story of a young son who wants to walk away with his father’s inheritance, before his father had even passed.
This was basically saying that he wanted his father to die.
The father grants his request and the young son goes and squanders all the money.
When a famine strikes the land, the son grows desperate to be back with his father.
He returns home expecting to be punished. But instead the father embraces him and throws a celebration.
The father chose to celebrate what his son did right.
Oftentimes, we act like the older brother in the story.
The older brother storms out of the celebration and shares in none of the joy.
Why?
Because the older brother chooses to focus on what the younger brother did wrong.
In verse 32, the father reframes his perspective.
He tells him that they had to celebrate because he was lost, and now he is found.
We could either be like the brother who doesn’t share in the joy of Heaven,
or we can choose to partner with the celebration of Heaven.
This only happens when we celebrate what people have done right.
As we celebrate milestones, the progress we’ve made, the good news we have, and people in our lives, we reap joy.
We call attention to the hope that God is working in our midst, and this produces an unshakeable joy.
Today’s modern world is naturally negative.
But as we celebrate, we can reverse this pattern in our hearts.
We can celebrate because that’s what Heaven is doing right now.
It’s time for us to join what Heaven is doing.
The Call to Celebrate!
Luke 15:7 KJV
[7] I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
https://bible.com/bible/1/luk.15.7.KJV
Also Read: Not Necessarily a Direct Attack from Satan! – Diademng (thediademng.org)
The Call To Celebrate!
