Joy Cometh ...
... and the "crud" leaveth. :) I am SO ready to be well again from this flu. I guess the one thing I can count on from past experience is that it doesn't last forever. So, to my suffering friends around the world...there is hope!!
Okay. I need to stop letting the decongestant talk and get to business. As I listened to the video on "Joy" of a Beth Moore study I'm participating in, I couldn't helped but be overcome by thoughts of some dear Christian friends I know, and even those I don't know, who are experiencing the kind of searing pain from life's circumstances that is temporarily dampening their joy.
I love to encourage people. To listen to them, take their hand, to put my arms around them and tell them that they will see a brighter day is something that really blesses me. Hope. Don't we all need it?
In black and white, and sometimes red, on the pages of our bibles we can see the truth of God's promises through the tears brought on by our circumstances if we know where to look. As I watched that video last night, Beth brought to remembrances some of my favorites words of life and I'll share them here.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, brining his sheaves with him. (Psalm 126:1-5)
Tell me these aren't words of life to your weary soul. Joy cometh, my friends, no matter where you are! The bible tells us so. Our Savior, Faithful Friend, and Creator of the whole wide world tells us so. As Beth so eloquently says it, we will never learn how to dance before Him if we never learn how to mourn before Him. Like Christ, we too can endure anything...anything, if we know that we will have that jumping-up-and-down- dancing-around-busting-at-the-seams kind of joy waiting on the other side of our trials. We will have that you know, if not in this life, in heaven. Guaranteed. Just keep your eyes on Jesus and we can rejoice in the Lord no matter what..
Hebrews 12:1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.