By Pat
A friend of mine is currently going through a very difficult time in his life. His burdens are heavy, his responsibilites are great, and his once strong faith has faded. His joy is gone. He is finding himself in a place where each of us at some point has been. He is in a spiritual drought. He is presently "going through the motions."
What do we do at these times? Giving up on God would be the easy thing-but God never said life would be easy, did He? In fact, if you look at the Biblical heroes, you see that each of them became mightier in God's kingdom through trial and adversity.
Psalm 100:2 tells us to "worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs," and verse 4 says to "enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name." But how do we worship with gladness and sing joyfully when our hearts feel so full of darkness, worry and despair? That's when we feel ourselves going through the motions. We praise, we worship, but our hearts aren't really in it. It's at those times we need to cling desperately to our life-preserver, Jesus, and His promise of hope.
Romans 12:12 says "Be joyful in HOPE, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Paul knew great adversity, but he clung to the one great thing we can all cling to during times of trial and suffering: HOPE. Paul tells us in Romans 5:3-5, "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." I know without a doubt that I would not be where I am spiritually today if not for the struggles I have faced, and I take comfort in the fact that I have much more growing to do. We can all say the same thing. We question, we doubt, we get angry, and our faith wavers. It's a part of our Christian walk. We wonder why God allows us to go through the heartaches and difficulties we endure because we are not always focused on making good come from bad. We're more focused on our worries. We're all guilty of this, but we have to remember that God sees the complete puzzle. We only see the fragmented pieces of our lives.
If we truly want to glorify God and feel the joy God wants us to enjoy, we must cling to the hope we have in Jesus, ask how we can further His kingdom through our circumstances, and remember that our joy should come in knowing that God loves us enough to want us to be His eternally. We have hope. Now THAT'S joy!
Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.