Knowing Joy amid Suffering
I know we've discussed this in several threads about trials, even the thread about death so I won't go into it a lot but want to at least cover the basics here. Remember, we're talking about you and me, and how we can know joy amid suffering. Again this isn't some special gift only given to the heroes in God's Word. It's something we all gain the more mature in Christ we become and the closer to Him we get. Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit and is often one of the first we experience when we're saved. Unfortunately for many of us it gets washed away, or seems to, as time goes on and we become wrapped up in the cares of life. That my friends is a big clue for us right there.
Galatians 5:22–23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
When we're first saved, we're usually filled with God's joy. I know I felt like I was literally going to burst and couldn't possibly hold anymore. I was blessed because people would comment about it saying how I always looked like I was "glowing" no matter what. That made me feel good because I knew it was God's joy they were seeing, but it also warned me. I didn't want to lose that, not even for a second! I wanted people to be able to look at me 20 years later and not only still see that glow but to see it brighter then ever. So, being a new Christian, I did the only thing I knew to do--I took it to the Lord in prayer asking Him to keep me filled with His joy as a testimony to Him. So of course, He began teaching me about it.
I learned that the only time it's justified to lose our joy is when we sin. The closer we get to the Lord, the more painful we'll view our own sins. What others might see as something minor will devastate us because we'll know we let down the Lord. This is why David asked the Lord to restore his joy after he had sinned.
Psalm 51:12, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
I used to think that some people were naturally pessimists and others optimists and that's true to a certain degree at least. However there's a third category that we tend to forget about. Some people are Christians! Christians are told to take control of their thought life and feelings and their obedience is rewarded with the Lord's spirit of Joy among other things. So while we may have been one or the other before we were saved, once saved we became a new creation; a blank slate, ready to start over. We often read that and think of it as symbolic but it really isn't. It's entirely and literally true. The Lord literally gives us a new spirit that isn't controlled by sin. It's up to us though to grow that spirit up and make it strong.
For many of us, that didn't happen though. Many aren't discipled the way the Lord intended new Christians to be, and so over time their joy diminishes and even disappears. If this describes you, don't despair because you can still change it. God will support you and help you as you attempt to grow and you can be once again filled with His Joy and even keep it at all times. It will require work on your part, just as it does on the part of those who were discipled right from the start, but the great thing about it is that the Lord will enable you to achieve it. He will help you because it's His Will that you should always be filled with His joy and peace.
Romans 14:17, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
Think about why you felt so full of joy when you were saved. I know that for me it was because I was brand new, I was clean! I think that knowledge that I was finally "clean" free from sin and able to live for the Lord just totally overwhelmed me. I wanted to shout it from the roof tops so that everyone could have this same thing and I mean that literally! I was just totally thrilled and grateful for what the Lord did for me and wanted nothing more then to thank Him and live for Him. If someone had told me that it was on the news that they'd found the cure for cancer, I would have felt that the joy of my salvation was 100 times greater then anyone's joy over that!
Now what about people who either don't recall when they were saved or who don't have that experience of being filled with joy when they were saved? Does that mean they aren't saved? Of course not! Everyone is different and everyone feels things differently for different reasons and expresses those feelings differently. If you're someone who didn't experience that filling up with joy, it simply means that you're not me
and God dealt with you in the manner which was right for you but
wouldn't have been right for me. So for you, I simply would ask that
you think back to when you have felt the joy of the Lord and think about
why you did, regardless of "when" you felt it.
The point of this is that when we stop and think and check the Bible, we'll see that God's joy always stems from our salvation. It's all about the good news of the Gospel. Scroll back up and look at the verse from psalms. David didn't just ask for "joy", he asked to have the "joy of God's salvation" restored to him.
Psalm 51:12, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 35:9, Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation.
Isaiah 61:10, I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
So our joy isn't about what's going on in our lives, it's about God and about our salvation and all that encompasses. In other words, our joy comes because we have been saved and we're grateful for that, and because of our salvation we know we have a place in God's greater plan (this is the goal we strive for--spiritual maturity and pleasing the Lord) and we rejoice in that as well.
Our joy also comes from God Himself--who He is-his attributes, character etc. It comes because we know how merciful the Lord is to have forgiven us, it comes because we know how fantastically loving He is that He would die for us when we were still His enemies. It comes because we know how just, fair, and righteous He is that He will cover our sins and teach us how to walk in His ways. It comes because we're familiar with His grace and how His grace and His blessings come new to us every day. It comes knowing that we have a Father that will really take care of us, never leave us, never mislead us, and who will always do what's best for us, even if it hurts. All these things (and much more) are the cause of our joy and because of that, absolutely nothing that happens to us can take it from us!
Obviously as we grow in the love and knowledge of our Lord all those things that are the cause of our joy are going to become more and more a part of us. The more they do so the more they will be expressed in our lives as fruit that even others can see. As we grow toward maturity in Christ, remember, we're becoming more and more like Him. This is God's Will for us. That doesn't mean that I'm going to stop being "Cindy", it simply means that Cindy is going to gain and nourish all those characteristics of Jesus in her life and that the more she does, the more others will see them. Eventually the things that cause the Lord pain and sorrow will cause that same pain and sorrow in me. The things that bring Him joy will bring joy to me; the things He desires will become the things I desire and the things He hates will become the things I hate; what's important to Him will become important to me, and I will be like Him. That's what will happen with each of us.
It was this kind of faith, this love and trust in the Lord that enabled Paul to say:
Acts 20:24, However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
2 Corinthians 12:9–10, But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
It's what allowed Job to say:
Job 2:10, He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
We can experience joy even when we're suffering if we can remember to trust God and keep our eyes on Jesus where they belong and not on the cause of our suffering. Paul gives us a tremendous example of this too: (Acts 16:22–33)
The key that allowed Paul to rejoice was his ability to see beyond himself and the pains, restrictions, and inconveniences of his circumstances. His greatest priority was the advancement of Christ’s Gospel, not a concern for his own comfort (see Acts 20:24; Rom. 1:15; 1 Cor. 9:16).
Because he saw himself as a prisoner for the sake of Christ, Paul did not wallow in self-pity. Instead he viewed himself as a servant or soldier on duty for the greater cause of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Given the situation, that was an incredible display of joy in the face of adversity. Ancient prisons like the one at Philippi were dark and dingy, unclean and unsanitary. In addition, Paul and Silas had their arms and legs stretched out wide and then locked in the stocks while still suffering the wounds from their beatings. Yet Paul describes himself as rejoicing in the middle of such torture.
In this episode with the Philippian jailer Paul illustrates how he so often took advantage of opportunities within times of adversity to spread the Gospel. This evangelizing could easily be seen as an overflow of Paul’s joyful attitude
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
Part of the problem today though is that we usually don't view what we're going through as though it was for Christ, and yet that's exactly what the Bible says we're to do.
Col 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
When you add that together with the fact that God is in control and sovereign, and you trust Him, then you can know like the heroes in the Bible that no matter what is happening to you that God is aware of it and that somehow, someway, it is meant for good--either for you or others or both.
Which brings us to another major problem we have these days. The world has tried to teach us since birth that our lives are all about us, that we should be the most important person in the world to ourselves. That we should "take care of #1 first" (meaning ourselves) etc. Yet that's the opposite of what God says. God tells us that we are to be last; we are to be servants; we're to put all others before ourselves. In fact he says we're to put Him first, then everyone else in the world and then last comes our self. With our fixation on ourselves though, the more we suffer the more we tend to fix our thoughts on ourselves instead of where they should be which is on God. That's when we start to get into the pity party mode. Whenever we start feeling that way though it should be a big red flag for us letting us know that we've taken our eyes off Jesus, off our goal and put them on ourselves instead. When we take our eyes off Jesus, our joy disappears. Thankfully the only thing it takes to bring it back is to put our focus where it belongs, on God!
As long as our focus in on God, as long as we are trusting Him, then we can have the joy of the Lord regardless of what's going on with us. Like Peter when he was walking on the water though, our joy will sink when we start focusing on ourselves and our situation instead of on Him.
There were several things that helped Paul maintain his joy in the Lord even when his physical situation was awful. We have the very same things that he had, in fact, we actually have more then he did because we have the entire NT to help us!
The first main thing he had to help him was his confidence in God's Word. He also had confidence in prayer and in the prayers of others for him. He was confident too that the Lord would be his provision for whatever he needed--spiritually, materially, physically, mentally or emotionally.
Philippians 1:19, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
Paul was certain that the Holy Spirit would grant him whatever was necessary to sustain him in any situation. The Greek word translated “provision” in Philippians 1:19 means “bountiful supply” or “full resources.” Paul understood that he could rely on the complete resources of the Holy Spirit, based on what Jesus promised (Luke 11:13; John 14–16; Acts 1:8).
That truth is a source of confidence—not just for Paul, but also for us. Every genuine believer possesses the Holy Spirit and therefore has full access to His resources.
Romans 8:26 says: “The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” That’s how things work out for good (v. 28). Trials, tribulations, and sufferings don’t resolve themselves for us in some vacuum. But we are able to endure them through the provision of God’s Spirit—a provision we can know by faith and obedience.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr.. The Power of Suffering
Last he had confidence in the promises of Christ. He know God's Word and he believed it wholly. Because he knew it and believed it, he believed that Christ was his reason for living. That's also true for each one of us, we just have to keep growing until we can know that as fully as Paul did. When we do, then we will always be able to rejoice and be able to say with Paul:
Philippians 1:21, For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
I know we've discussed this in several threads about trials, even the thread about death so I won't go into it a lot but want to at least cover the basics here. Remember, we're talking about you and me, and how we can know joy amid suffering. Again this isn't some special gift only given to the heroes in God's Word. It's something we all gain the more mature in Christ we become and the closer to Him we get. Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit and is often one of the first we experience when we're saved. Unfortunately for many of us it gets washed away, or seems to, as time goes on and we become wrapped up in the cares of life. That my friends is a big clue for us right there.
Galatians 5:22–23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
When we're first saved, we're usually filled with God's joy. I know I felt like I was literally going to burst and couldn't possibly hold anymore. I was blessed because people would comment about it saying how I always looked like I was "glowing" no matter what. That made me feel good because I knew it was God's joy they were seeing, but it also warned me. I didn't want to lose that, not even for a second! I wanted people to be able to look at me 20 years later and not only still see that glow but to see it brighter then ever. So, being a new Christian, I did the only thing I knew to do--I took it to the Lord in prayer asking Him to keep me filled with His joy as a testimony to Him. So of course, He began teaching me about it.
I learned that the only time it's justified to lose our joy is when we sin. The closer we get to the Lord, the more painful we'll view our own sins. What others might see as something minor will devastate us because we'll know we let down the Lord. This is why David asked the Lord to restore his joy after he had sinned.
Psalm 51:12, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
I used to think that some people were naturally pessimists and others optimists and that's true to a certain degree at least. However there's a third category that we tend to forget about. Some people are Christians! Christians are told to take control of their thought life and feelings and their obedience is rewarded with the Lord's spirit of Joy among other things. So while we may have been one or the other before we were saved, once saved we became a new creation; a blank slate, ready to start over. We often read that and think of it as symbolic but it really isn't. It's entirely and literally true. The Lord literally gives us a new spirit that isn't controlled by sin. It's up to us though to grow that spirit up and make it strong.
For many of us, that didn't happen though. Many aren't discipled the way the Lord intended new Christians to be, and so over time their joy diminishes and even disappears. If this describes you, don't despair because you can still change it. God will support you and help you as you attempt to grow and you can be once again filled with His Joy and even keep it at all times. It will require work on your part, just as it does on the part of those who were discipled right from the start, but the great thing about it is that the Lord will enable you to achieve it. He will help you because it's His Will that you should always be filled with His joy and peace.
Romans 14:17, For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
Think about why you felt so full of joy when you were saved. I know that for me it was because I was brand new, I was clean! I think that knowledge that I was finally "clean" free from sin and able to live for the Lord just totally overwhelmed me. I wanted to shout it from the roof tops so that everyone could have this same thing and I mean that literally! I was just totally thrilled and grateful for what the Lord did for me and wanted nothing more then to thank Him and live for Him. If someone had told me that it was on the news that they'd found the cure for cancer, I would have felt that the joy of my salvation was 100 times greater then anyone's joy over that!
Now what about people who either don't recall when they were saved or who don't have that experience of being filled with joy when they were saved? Does that mean they aren't saved? Of course not! Everyone is different and everyone feels things differently for different reasons and expresses those feelings differently. If you're someone who didn't experience that filling up with joy, it simply means that you're not me
and God dealt with you in the manner which was right for you but
wouldn't have been right for me. So for you, I simply would ask that
you think back to when you have felt the joy of the Lord and think about
why you did, regardless of "when" you felt it.The point of this is that when we stop and think and check the Bible, we'll see that God's joy always stems from our salvation. It's all about the good news of the Gospel. Scroll back up and look at the verse from psalms. David didn't just ask for "joy", he asked to have the "joy of God's salvation" restored to him.
Psalm 51:12, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 35:9, Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in his salvation.
Isaiah 61:10, I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
So our joy isn't about what's going on in our lives, it's about God and about our salvation and all that encompasses. In other words, our joy comes because we have been saved and we're grateful for that, and because of our salvation we know we have a place in God's greater plan (this is the goal we strive for--spiritual maturity and pleasing the Lord) and we rejoice in that as well.
Our joy also comes from God Himself--who He is-his attributes, character etc. It comes because we know how merciful the Lord is to have forgiven us, it comes because we know how fantastically loving He is that He would die for us when we were still His enemies. It comes because we know how just, fair, and righteous He is that He will cover our sins and teach us how to walk in His ways. It comes because we're familiar with His grace and how His grace and His blessings come new to us every day. It comes knowing that we have a Father that will really take care of us, never leave us, never mislead us, and who will always do what's best for us, even if it hurts. All these things (and much more) are the cause of our joy and because of that, absolutely nothing that happens to us can take it from us!
Obviously as we grow in the love and knowledge of our Lord all those things that are the cause of our joy are going to become more and more a part of us. The more they do so the more they will be expressed in our lives as fruit that even others can see. As we grow toward maturity in Christ, remember, we're becoming more and more like Him. This is God's Will for us. That doesn't mean that I'm going to stop being "Cindy", it simply means that Cindy is going to gain and nourish all those characteristics of Jesus in her life and that the more she does, the more others will see them. Eventually the things that cause the Lord pain and sorrow will cause that same pain and sorrow in me. The things that bring Him joy will bring joy to me; the things He desires will become the things I desire and the things He hates will become the things I hate; what's important to Him will become important to me, and I will be like Him. That's what will happen with each of us.
It was this kind of faith, this love and trust in the Lord that enabled Paul to say:
Acts 20:24, However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
2 Corinthians 12:9–10, But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
It's what allowed Job to say:
Job 2:10, He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
We can experience joy even when we're suffering if we can remember to trust God and keep our eyes on Jesus where they belong and not on the cause of our suffering. Paul gives us a tremendous example of this too: (Acts 16:22–33)
The key that allowed Paul to rejoice was his ability to see beyond himself and the pains, restrictions, and inconveniences of his circumstances. His greatest priority was the advancement of Christ’s Gospel, not a concern for his own comfort (see Acts 20:24; Rom. 1:15; 1 Cor. 9:16).
Because he saw himself as a prisoner for the sake of Christ, Paul did not wallow in self-pity. Instead he viewed himself as a servant or soldier on duty for the greater cause of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Given the situation, that was an incredible display of joy in the face of adversity. Ancient prisons like the one at Philippi were dark and dingy, unclean and unsanitary. In addition, Paul and Silas had their arms and legs stretched out wide and then locked in the stocks while still suffering the wounds from their beatings. Yet Paul describes himself as rejoicing in the middle of such torture.
In this episode with the Philippian jailer Paul illustrates how he so often took advantage of opportunities within times of adversity to spread the Gospel. This evangelizing could easily be seen as an overflow of Paul’s joyful attitude
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
Part of the problem today though is that we usually don't view what we're going through as though it was for Christ, and yet that's exactly what the Bible says we're to do.
Col 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
When you add that together with the fact that God is in control and sovereign, and you trust Him, then you can know like the heroes in the Bible that no matter what is happening to you that God is aware of it and that somehow, someway, it is meant for good--either for you or others or both.
Which brings us to another major problem we have these days. The world has tried to teach us since birth that our lives are all about us, that we should be the most important person in the world to ourselves. That we should "take care of #1 first" (meaning ourselves) etc. Yet that's the opposite of what God says. God tells us that we are to be last; we are to be servants; we're to put all others before ourselves. In fact he says we're to put Him first, then everyone else in the world and then last comes our self. With our fixation on ourselves though, the more we suffer the more we tend to fix our thoughts on ourselves instead of where they should be which is on God. That's when we start to get into the pity party mode. Whenever we start feeling that way though it should be a big red flag for us letting us know that we've taken our eyes off Jesus, off our goal and put them on ourselves instead. When we take our eyes off Jesus, our joy disappears. Thankfully the only thing it takes to bring it back is to put our focus where it belongs, on God!
As long as our focus in on God, as long as we are trusting Him, then we can have the joy of the Lord regardless of what's going on with us. Like Peter when he was walking on the water though, our joy will sink when we start focusing on ourselves and our situation instead of on Him.
There were several things that helped Paul maintain his joy in the Lord even when his physical situation was awful. We have the very same things that he had, in fact, we actually have more then he did because we have the entire NT to help us!
The first main thing he had to help him was his confidence in God's Word. He also had confidence in prayer and in the prayers of others for him. He was confident too that the Lord would be his provision for whatever he needed--spiritually, materially, physically, mentally or emotionally.
Philippians 1:19, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
Paul was certain that the Holy Spirit would grant him whatever was necessary to sustain him in any situation. The Greek word translated “provision” in Philippians 1:19 means “bountiful supply” or “full resources.” Paul understood that he could rely on the complete resources of the Holy Spirit, based on what Jesus promised (Luke 11:13; John 14–16; Acts 1:8).
That truth is a source of confidence—not just for Paul, but also for us. Every genuine believer possesses the Holy Spirit and therefore has full access to His resources.
Romans 8:26 says: “The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” That’s how things work out for good (v. 28). Trials, tribulations, and sufferings don’t resolve themselves for us in some vacuum. But we are able to endure them through the provision of God’s Spirit—a provision we can know by faith and obedience.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr.. The Power of Suffering
Last he had confidence in the promises of Christ. He know God's Word and he believed it wholly. Because he knew it and believed it, he believed that Christ was his reason for living. That's also true for each one of us, we just have to keep growing until we can know that as fully as Paul did. When we do, then we will always be able to rejoice and be able to say with Paul:
Philippians 1:21, For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
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