As I was studying this morning, I came across the following verse and it really
intrigued me, especially in light of the teaching I had just heard yesterday on
Living a Lifestyle of Joy.
2 Cor 7:10 (AMP) For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce
a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil,
and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is
characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].
The line that catches my eye here is "for godly grief and the pain that God is
permitted to direct". It makes us change our way of thinking and contributes to
the Shalom of God, the wholeness and restoration of all things in us to the original
intent of God for our lives, and it delivers us from anything that the enemy is
intent on for our lives! WOW!
1 Peter 4:13 (NASB) says, "...but to the degree that you share the sufferings of
Christ, keep on REJOICING, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may
REJOICE WITH EXULTATION.
Longsuffering with joy is a paradox...a statement or proposition that seems
self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. The
Word of God is full of these truths held intension. When you are going through
the very hardest thing life has ever thrown at you...yet joy just keeps on coming.
That is something that only our amazing God can bring about as we allow Him to
direct our pain...give it to Him as a sacrifice and watch Him bring you JOY out
of it all!
Graham Cooke said so many amazing things in Living a Lifestyle of Joy,
but this one really stood out to me:
I think it's important that we start and finish every day with celebration. No
matter what we're going through that we find just that place of quietness
with God where we just give thanks...where we just celebrate...God is with
us, Christ is for us, Christ is in us, the Holy Spirit is our tutor in life...
we have NO REASON not to celebrate Who God is, and even for me the highest
form of worship is lamentation. Lamentation has a "though and a yet". It says,
"though there are no sheep, though the oxen are dying, though the crops are
failing, YET I WILL REJOICE in the Lord! Thanksgiving is not about stepping
out of your pain and trying to find the place yourself of rejoicing. Lamentation
is about stepping into your pain and making it an offering to God and saying
"I still worship You!" Lamentation is about stepping into a place of rejoicing
and thanksgiving and saying, "even if You kill me, though You slay me,
yet I will exult in You! God doesn't want you to deny the existence of pain
and grief and put it on one side, He is just saying, "No...make it an offering.
Stand in that place and give that to me and you REJOICE, because it's the
chapter, it's not the book and though it feels hard and harsh and painful right
now, it's not your whole journey." All negative emotions at some point must
cease and all of the permanent ones of Heaven, which are always available,
have different strengths at different times. "We're learning that stuff, eh?"
(excerpt from Living a Lifestyle of Joy by Graham Cooke)
Happiness, peace, joy and LOVE,
Teresa
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