The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Joy In Sorrow"
Part 1
Many dual tracks of perspective must course through the hearts and minds of born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sorrow and joy, for example, often exist concurrently in our responses to life's realities.
"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (II Corinthians 6:10).
In times of difficulty, pain, and loss, we rightly feel sad. Our Lord made us with the capacity for sorrow. "Blessed are they that mourn" (Matthew 5:4). Moreover, the love of Christ in Christians leads us to grief for many reasons, including and especially the challenges of others that motivate our compassion and sympathy. However, we must not be overcome with sorrow to the degree we fail to see our Lord's working and His "very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1). We must frequently make the choice to rejoice as a matter of conviction when we feel nothing that resembles our normal definition of joy. Indeed, if we can rejoice in sorrow, as the Apostle Paul affirmed, it must be that a deeper reality than feeling constitutes the heart of true joy. It does. Or rather, He does.
"Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy" (Psalm 43:4).
David reveals joy to be something - Someone - beyond emotional sensibility. God Himself constitutes the very essence of joy. He Himself is our joy. Emotional conditions notwithstanding, joy exists as an ever present reality in the spirits of born again believers. We may feel heartache and even heartbreak, and often rightly so. Nevertheless we can and must at all times join the prophet in his determination of faith: "I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Habbakuk 3:18). This applies in times of personal challenge, and in times when we compassionately hurt for others. We do not stop at the portal of pain regarding any matter. We press through to see our Heavenly Father's universal involvement and working in all things - "I will rejoice." We rejoice in Him - again, often with no accompanying happy feelings - and thus become an agent of faith whereby God works in response to our chosen confidence.
Great challenge awaits all who will walk the path of "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." Great comfort also graces our hearts as we realize God's personal keeping, and as we become the means whereby He administers balm and help unto others. A Day approaches wherein the sons and daughters of God in Christ will know an infinite experience of joy without accompanying sorrow. This is not that day. Presently, we often hurt. We then make the choice, the choice to rejoice, as a matter of faith in the God who can keep our hearts regardless of the nature or extent of any challenge. Much grace and light shines forth from those who will walk this path of great challenge, but who receive even greater experience of God both personally and in the administration of His grace to others.
"The joy of the Lord is your strength."
(Nehemiah 8:10)
"Rejoice the soul of Thy servant, for unto Thee, o Lord, do I lift up my soul."
(Psalm 86:4)
"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations."
(James 1:2)
Tomorrow, Part 2: "Count It All Joy."
Weekly Memory Verse
"Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me."
(John 5:39)
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