How Can Suffering Be The Path To Exuberant Joy?
The Bible speaks a lot about Joy—true joy that is found in Christ (Romans 5:11), a joy that will never leave us (Isaiah 35:10) and joy overflowing (John 16: 22, 24). We want that!! Yet, what we sometimes don’t realize is that often it is found through suffering, sorrow and many trials. Our human hearts are born filled with sin. We want to seek happiness and to do it “our way”. Even for those of us who truly seek after Christ as our joy, we fight against the truth that many times our journey to understanding and experiencing real Joy in Christ leads us through great trials, pain and suffering.
As a young Christian, I searched to follow Jesus. Little did I know that my journey would lead me through failure, divorce, abuse, cancer, illness, widowhood, single motherhood, financial disaster, pains, sorrows, loneliness, and so many surgeries! Every step of the journey, God was using to transform my heart. He had to deal with my pride, my selfish desires, my self-exaltation, and my desire to prove to Him that I was worthy of the salvation He had so freely died to give me. I could not truly understand that my Joy was in Him alone; until He swept away all the cobwebs hidden in the deep recesses of my heart. He continues to do that every single day of my life. He continues to reveal those dark areas so that they might be cleansed. As He does that, my view of everything changes. He is able to then fill those corners with a vision of His Glory. As I am able to see His Glory clearer, my heart enlarges to be filled with His Love and His Joy. It is an ever upward and transforming change.
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