Devotions: Rejoicing in Hardship

 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

Philippians 4:4 New American Standard Bible 1995

 

This verse is part of the last chapter of Philippians where Paul shares little tidbits of wisdom and advice. One of the pillars of the advent season is joy, rejoicing in the first coming of Christ and what that means for us. To be honest, right now I don’t feel very joyful. The last couple weeks have been difficult and one of my closest friends lost her husband Saturday. While I am glad that he is no longer in pain or dealing with chronic illness, my heart aches for his family. In the midst of pain and trouble it is hard to find joy, but that is when we need it most, and there are a couple things that we need to remember about joy.

First, joy is not like happiness which is based on our circumstances. Joy is derived from our relationship with God regardless of circumstance. Second, joy is found in God and doing God’s will, again regardless of circumstance or outcome, but if we are not looking for it we will not find it. I have always struggled with joy and that is partly because I tend to focus on the negative. Third, the focus of our joy and rejoicing should be God. The reason we have joy and can rejoice in all circumstances is because of what God has done for us. Note that this verse does not say “be happy no matter what.” Paul is not admonishing us to ignore what is going on in our lives, to be happy about pain and suffering, or to walk around pretending to be happy about horrible things like some fool. He says to rejoice in the Lord. Yes, times are hard. Life is difficult. Sometimes it is hard to find anything good in this world, BUT God is always good. When times are hard we need to look up instead of looking around. Rather than denying the pain we are in, we should instead look to God and find our comfort, peace and joy in Him. It helps to remember His love for us that sent Him to the cross to save us. It helps to remember what He has already done for us and all the blessings we have. It helps to remember where we are going in the end. The pain of this life is so temporary and transient that it will never be remembered for eternity. One whole lifetime is but a dot on the timeline of eternity. While we should not try to diminish what we are going through, we need to keep it in perspective. This will not last forever. There is a glorious end which will wipe away everything bad. This is not the end. We can also find joy in the fact that God can work everything out for our good if we will love and trust Him. Our bad can be redeemed. The manure of life can be used to help new life grow stronger. Nothing is impossible with God or out of His reach. That is worth rejoicing over!

What are you going through? Are you having trouble finding joy? Look to your Redeemer and Savior. Remember His great love for you. Surrender your pain to Him so that He can make it into something beautiful.

 

 

 

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