Can We Really Rejoice Always? Danny Gokey Says Yes
By Movieguide® Contributor
AMERICAN IDOL alum Danny Gokey is digging into 1 Thessalonians to share the good news — joy can be found in everything.
“1 Thessalonians 5:16, 17 and 18 gives a secret how to overcome any situation you’re going through,” Gokey preached on Instagram July 11. “Number one it says, ‘Rejoice always.’ Number two it says, ‘Pray consistently.’”
“Number three it says, ‘Give thanks in everything,’” he continued. “Listen if it says rejoice always, is there ever a time not to rejoice?”
Gokey says “no,” because we should always rejoice since we can look to God to provide joy and strength.
“You can be mourning, you could be going through difficult times, but the joy of the Lord will pull you up. Number two, it says, ‘Pray constantly.’ When you pray, you open a door for all of heaven to invade that situation and your life,” Gokey said.
“And number three, it says, ‘Give thanks in everything.’ Not give thanks for everything but gives thanks in everything. You understand when you give thanks you open a door to grace,” Gokey said, “Allowing the grace of God, which is the power of God, the favor of God, to work in you, work through you, and give you the ability to overcome anything you are going through.”
Gokey then pulled on verse 23, which says, “The God of peace will sanctify you completely, that you may be whole spirit soul body and be kept sound and blameless.”
Gokey says these three things in Thessalonians — persistent joy, constant prayer and gratitude in everything — will all lead to a “whole” life, as described in verse 23.
“Let’s be doers of the word and let’s get the kingdom of God involved in our situations because we are overcomers,” Gokey finished.
Gokey is someone who has experienced great loss. So for him to say that there is never a situation “not to rejoice” bears weight.
Movieguide® reported on Gokey and his first wife, who died during heart surgery:
“Little did I know that in our first year of marriage that we’d be in the hospital together because her heart was beating 200 times per minute,” Danny continued. “And that’s when the doctor dropped the news on us. We were both 24-years-old. He said, ‘We’re going to have to have another heart surgery.’”
The tragic event forced Gokey to face some of his lifelong fears about God’s love for him.
“I remember it got to the point where she was gone. I just felt at such a complete loss. And once again, that all-familiar thing, the fear… came back into my life. This time because she ended up passing away, I literally felt in my heart like… God is mad at me,” Gokey said. “At the funeral, there was such a numbness on me that I just could not cry a tear. Everything that I had in me was literally drained.”
But through hope and joy in God, Gokey found a way through the darkness.
He sings about his experience in his 2014 song, “Hope in Front of Me.” Some of the lyrics read:
I’ve been running through rain that I thought would never end
Trying to make it on faith in a struggle against the wind
I’ve seen the dark and the broken places, whoa
But I know in my soul no matter how bad it gets
I’ll be alright
There’s hope in front of me
There’s a light, I still see it
There’s a hand still holding me
Even when I don’t believe it
I might be down, but I’m not dead
There’s better days still up ahead
Even after all I’ve seen
There’s hope in front of me,
He shared how he wanted to share the message of hope through the song with The Hollywood Reporter. “With ‘Hope In Front of Me,’ we are talking about hope in a way that is not cheesy and not cliche: ‘I might be down, but I’m not dead.’ It’s a great lyric, but the sound that it’s wrapped in is a really catchy sound, and it takes the lyric and smoothes it over,” he said. “It’s like a cool way of having hope. When you write about hope, don’t make it sappy; make it cool, make it adaptable. They want to move to it, but that message is feeding their soul.”
- Content: +2Share:
- Content: +3