Fresh Joy. Heidi McLaughlin

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СКАЧАТЬ not to be destroyed. Jeremiah cried out, “My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken. Listen to the weeping of my people; it can be heard all across the land ... I hurt with the hurt of my people. I mourn and am overcome with grief” (Jer. 8:18–19, 21 NLT). Jeremiah devoured God’s Word—it was a joy and delight to him. Jeremiah was faithful and obedient to the point of agreeing not to marry. Yet when he cried out for God to save Jerusalem, the answer was “no.”

      • Elijah, the zealous prophet, was worn out and depressed after the showdown with the 450 prophets of Baal. He ran into the wilderness and sat under a solitary broom tree, praying that he might die. “‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors’” (1 Kings 19:4). Again, God’s answer was “no.”

      • The apostle Paul pleaded three times for God to remove the thorn from his flesh. Not only was God’s answer “no,” but Paul was told, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

      • Then there was Jonah, who did not want to go to Nineveh. Job, who wanted to die. Israelite armies who prayed for victory endured humiliating defeats. God answered all of them with a “no.”

      Instant answers and immediate joy are expected in this present generation. Want to know how many more days until spring? Ask Siri. Want to learn how to make apple roses or to crochet? Find the right YouTube video. Want to know the distance from your house to the conference centre? Pull up Google Maps. With our present technology we feel entitled to get immediate answers for the things we need or want. But God is not our latest guru, Google, or Bible Gateway.

      God is clothed in majesty and shrouded in mystery. He is far but yet so near. On the day I can create a flower or tree I will feel justified in questioning him. Until then I will subdue my soul by reflecting on these profound words: “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely” (1 Cor. 13:12 NLT).

      Isn’t this wonderful news? No matter how hard we try, we can’t figure out God. Saturating ourselves in these truths compels us to let go of our questions and trust God for the day when we will understand everything.

      Every intersection of crisis demands a choice. The worn-out cliché “It will either make you better or bitter” is annoying but true. Will we allow unanswered prayers to harden our hearts or use them to push deeper into God’s unfailing love, to grow wiser and experience a more profound sense of joy? Our God of the “upper story,” who orchestrates everything to fulfill our very best lives, longs for us to trust him in the good and bad things that come our way.

      Trusting God through hardship doesn’t mean we suck it up and move on. There is a time for expressing honest grief and deep sorrow. David, the author of many of the psalms and a man after God’s own heart, was on the run for his life for 16 years. With honesty and pain he lamented and cried out over and over again:

      • “I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched. My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me” (Ps. 69:3 NLT).

      • “Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears” (Ps. 39:12 NLT).

      • “I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die” (Ps. 28:1 NLT).

      David’s laments echo deep into my soul. But we cannot stop there. As we continue surveying David’s tumultuous “lower story,” the day-to-day events of his life, we get to see God’s heavenly perspective, “the upper story,” unfold. Finally, David is crowned king of Judah (2 Sam. 2:4). The “upper story” had always been for David to become king, but in the seemingly long wilderness, David had to trust God and stand strong for his daily victories.

      Grow Your Joy

      Sometimes unanswered prayers change our lives dramatically in ways we didn’t choose or ask for. I didn’t ask to be a widow a second time. The divorce was not in your agenda. The bankruptcy was never in the blueprint. Your child’s disability will never change. It’s hard to live with the fallout. The Bible says we are to pray and believe, and I’m sure that’s what most of you did. How do we move forward without becoming bitter? How do we gracefully move to joy?

      1. Accept your lower story. As painful as it is, we have to accept our “lower story,” which is our daily struggle of joy and pain. When Jack died, I had to accept the unfair reality that I was a widow once again. This is our time to lament, cry, get angry, and allow the shock to settle in our soul. Accepting our reality and feelings is the first step to moving forward.

      2. Seek goodness. While on the run for over 16 years, David, in the middle of his battles and hardships, chose to praise God and remind himself of God’s unfailing love:

      • “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

      • “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him” (Ps. 28:7).

      Elisabeth Elliot, who lost her husband on the mission field and faced multiple hardships, said this about our loving God: “To love God is to love His will. It is to wait quietly for life to be measured out by the One who knows us through and through. It is to be content with His timing and His wise apportionment.”10

      Our natural tendency is to wallow in anger and self-pity instead of seeking goodness. We need to intentionally go to the source of joy: Jesus, the one who drank the cup of suffering of God’s wrath so that you and I can have access to joy. Before Jesus went to the cross, he said, “You have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy” (John 16:22 NLT). Jesus could endure this suffering because he knew that his daddy had eternal joy waiting for him in heaven. You and I also have that joy waiting for us, but because of Christ, we don’t have to wait. We can actually have it now.

      3. Declare victory. Our words have the power to unfold a future filled with blessings. We always have the choice of defeat or victory. In Deuteronomy 30:19 (NLT) God gives us this choice: “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life.” Joy emerges and grows when we choose to move forward and declare victory.

      4. Seek a heavenly perspective. History’s biggest unanswered prayer unleashed the greatest miracles and victory. The night before Jesus went to the cross, he bowed his head and talked to his father with this deeply personal prayer: “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Matt. 26:39 NLT). God’s answer was “no.” Jesus had to endure the suffering for you and me.

      Like a lamb led to the slaughter, Jesus humbly went to the cross, and he experienced the excruciating pain of nails driven into his hands. He accepted all the sin in the world, past, present, and future, upon himself. He endured this suffering so that the curtain separating us from our heavenly Father would be torn in half, connecting us to the reservoir of heaven and enabling us to enjoy a life of freedom and joy, which includes

      • Redemption of our sin

      • The fruit of the Holy Spirit

      • The mind of Christ

      • The privilege to come fearlessly into God’s presence through prayer

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