Fighting for joy in the midst of sorrow
Relationships with loved ones can also be a rich source of joy. Since you are God’s beloved, your relationship with Him is an ever-present wellspring of gladness.
REJOICE ALWAYS! This is one of the shortest verses in the Bible, but it is radiant with heavenly light. ‘I made you in my image and I crafted you with the ability to choose joy in the moments of your life’. What you are going through is not a mistake. There is a greater purpose in all our sorrow and celebrations.
Choosing to rejoice will bless you and those around you. It will also strengthen your relationship with God.
Are you in a season right now where you feel like nothing exciting is happening for you? Are you feeling alone, hopeless, or discouraged? I have been there and know the feeling! Let me offer you the hope that keeps me going.
Hebrews 11 says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and knowing something is real even if we do not see it.” I love this verse because it always brings me comfort when I am in the midst of a season where I’m finding it difficult to hold on.
Jeremiah 29:11 states, “I know the plans that I have for you…plans to prosper you…to give you a future and a hope.” If you are feeling discouraged today and are having a hard time believing, just know that God is closer to you than you know.
Thankfulness keeps you linked to God and anchored in the present. Worry, on the other hand makes you wander in barren places of uncertainty. However, you can always return to your maker by whispering, “Lord, help me.”
To live consistently in the present, seek to become more grateful. Look around you, searching for the many gifts God showered upon you. As you thank God for these blessings, go into detail—express yourself enthusiastically! This will increase your gratitude and enhance your ability to grasp how blessed you really are.
It’s starting to make so much more sense that “faith” really is the “evidence of things not seen,” and that a spiritually driven life is a life of constant faith and belief. Because we are so uniquely crafted as human beings, we don’t naturally trust someone we can’t see, especially when there is pain and uncertainty involved in our own personal story. When we’ve found ourselves engulfed and buried inside one of life’s many storms, it becomes a lot easier to self-protect to avoid the suffering.
My daily pursuit has been that of relentlessly asking the Lord for the grace to trust Him, no matter what my daily circumstances look like to my human eyes. Because we are human, we don’t see or know what He does. We don’t see the intricate crafting of our story the way He does.
I’m discovering that I actually like being surprised and that the Holy Spirit loves to surprise us all the time. In time, if we can just stand and not look to the right or left, we will see how His hand has been spinning us on the wheel like clay in the Potter’s hands.
He is using this season right now to stretch, bend, purify, and refine you into a warrior for the Kingdom. Like grapes that get crushed and pressed and eventually turn into beautiful wine, so our character and faith after the Lord puts us through His refining process. This may require some crushing, pressing, filtering out the junk, and even sitting for a while to mature, but in due season, it’s our time to be released! God has a plan for you, and it’s probably just around the corner! BELIEVE IT!
PRAYER:No matter what we face in our personal lives, I pray that we will be awakened to the knowledge and truth of the goodness of God in all situations.
