Those Who Love Rejoice with Others

Have you ever met someone who was sad all the time? Every little thing irritated them when rational kind people wouldn't think anything about the same kinds of inconveniences or might not even think they were inconveniences?

Narcissists almost never laugh, they smile rarely and seem angry all the time. This is someone who does not have the joy of the Lord. No matter how much they have it does not make them happy as long as someone else has more.

We are watching this mentality grow in our culture. Many people only laugh and smile when they are getting what they want or attention on themselves.

When someone else is happy and feeling blessed the narcissist does not join in the joy of that blessing, in fact, they are jealous and hate that it was not their blessing.

This is the 2 Timothy 3 mentality of total self-absorption. The only way to avoid becoming like this is to seek Christ for spiritual healing from an angry heart. In this sin-ravaged world, the only way to escape the influence of a sad ungrateful mentality is to trust in Christ and ask to be changed into a new creation by Him.

Those who love the Lord enjoy that their friends are blessed, they laugh with them, cry with them when there are trials, and engage as dear friends.

Romans 12:14-16 "14 Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but enjoy the company of the lowly. Do not be conceited."

When we have the joy of the Lord we are not in competition with anyone else, nor do we count to see who has more.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

"4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it [a]keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Those who Love want the best for others even more than for themselves.