Always? Always be joyful?
Is that even possible? To Always be joyful? No matter what
happens?
Always be thankful!
Really? Always?
Even when life is falling apart around me?
Oh and by the way… pray too; while you are always being
joyful and thankful… NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.
Why? Oh because it’s God’s will for his children… oh okay…
that seals it…
I will ALWAYS BE JOYFUL
AND THANKFUL… NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS!!!
Ummm… I don’t know about you… but yeah… that does NOT happen
in my life.
I am NOT always joyful and thankful in all my circumstances.
I don’t always pray through things.
Sometime I downright complain. Sometimes I give God the
silent treatment.
And being thankful?
When we were sued for a million dollars; when my mom, dad and grandma died of
cancer in two years; when our family dog died; when my husband could not get a
job to save his life; when we had no hot water, waited in long lines at the
food bank; got on welfare and food stamps; had one broken down car after
another, with no funds to purchase a new one; gas and electric bills rolling in
with 24 hour notices on them; counting change to pay for gas and sports and
activities for our kids to be involved in, like normal kids; anxiety attacks
that put me in the hospital; depression that tormented my husband; coaches
bullying my son; mean girls spewing hate towards my daughter; broken washing
machine; deep wounds coming up to the surface.
Sure I will be thankful for all those things… ummm… or maybe
not.
Seven years of sorrow consumed my family like piranhas in
our lives. It literally took us down to the bone. Raw, true, vulnerable. We
were exposed, bare, broken… yet we kept our eyes on Jesus. That does not mean
we were singing the halleluiah chours every day… but we continually looked to
him, complained to, cried out to him, cussed at him. It was a purge, a volcanic
eruption of every hidden and pressed down wound that was trapped in our soul.
It came gushing out with a vengeance and kept on flowing for years…
But in the midst of this purge…something sneaked up on us. A
quiet, secret, precious gift. The best kind of gift you can receive. You know
the kind you never ever imagined or even thought of. The one that is everything
you never knew you wanted. You know those kind. Well this is what the LORD gave
to us.
It seems that no matter where I turn today, sorrow, anger,
grief, pain, hopelessness overcomes the world. I hear story after story of
people who are overwhelmed by the tragedies of life. Do I say, “Always be
joyful and thankful and pray, no matter your circumstances?” Um… no, I don’t.
It is not a gift I can give. What I can give, is the expression of the gift I
unwrapped in my own circumstances. I can bring comfort, prayer, love, hope.
Walking out the Christian faith is no picnic. It is an everyday battle. All day
and night the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy us. All day and night, we
have to fight the attack.
Thankfulness, joy, prayer… those are some to the weapons we
have to fight back. Those are just some of the gifts God has given us to
overcome darkness. Satan knows his days are numbered and so fights with a fury
to turn us away from LOVE. In just the last two days, I have heard stories of
unexpected death, suicide, homelessness, debilitating injury, cancer,
rejection, abandonment, fear.
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter
various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And
let the endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4
Here it is again, finding joy in the midst of various
trials. Why? Because this testing of our faith produces endurance. Endurance
for what? Endurance for the battle. The everyday struggles that the enemy hurls
at us. The traumatic events that the enemy tries to destroy us with. Endurance
is the power to endure (last, survive, continue) an unpleasant or difficult
process or situation without giving way.
Those who endure through great hardship, who find joy, who
thank God in the midst of it, who pray without fail… We are counted as blessed.
(James 5:11) For we know that it will push us to be more like Jesus. It is hard
and I wish we could forgo the whole process. Yet the process works the sin out
of us. It is a purification process- “making us perfect and complete, lacking
nothing.”
Still, God is compassionate and merciful in the process.
Giving us grace through the process.
My heart is full, my mind is overwhelmed; my love is deep,
my anger is intense; my resolve is mighty, my resources are few. Still, with
everything in me… I will praise my God, my ABBA, who give me life in the midst
of this dying world. I will be thankful that I am His, even when everything
around me fails. This world is not my home. I am a visitor, a stranger, on a
journey home to live forever in perfection with my Savior, with my brothers and
sisters in Christ.
I long for all of you to come. I desperately desire that all
seek this gift of endurance in the trials, so that you will find yourself
unwrapping the JOY, the deep, true, unfailing JOY that comes from persevering
and believing that God has never left you. It is there that peace comes. It is
there that rest remains.
Perfection is impossible… but blamelessness is POSSIBLE.
Perfection is our goal… always walking towards it. And although it can never be
obtained on this earth, it is the direction in which we are going. Thanking God
along the way, being joyful no matter the circumstances, always praying and
talking with God about the journey. This is His will for us… this is our goal.
May today bring us opportunities to share joy, be thankful
and pray for others… NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCES.
