03/07/2023
Today let’s contemplate how we can remain joyful in God while in the midst of our daily distresses. Let’s seek the source of our victory, certainty, and amazement during the trials and tribulations we face. Let’s try to understand how it is possible to feel comfort and joy in Jesus even when we are in the grips of staggering loss, or struggling through painful problems and dire crises.
What I have come to realize is that no matter how alone Satan might try to make us feel... we are not. Jesus is with us in every hardship, He is our rock in the hard times and in Him we find comfort and joy without fail. This accounts for why we don't just feel joy when our troubles are gone, but even in the midst of them... from a stumped toe to the death throes of cancer He is there. From a failing grade in school to the loss of a business, He is there. In all our troubles He is there reminding us that our joy and redemption isn't of this world, but within us, and in what is beyond.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Romans 8:35-37 KJV
Oswald Chambers reflected on this same amazing victory over the struggles of life. He found that we should do as I have already suggested... look to our foundation, strip away all of the loose soil and find that which never fails or moves, and by doing this we will find our help, and our joy in God’s grace.
"The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit. Paul says this is the reason we are more than conquerors in all these things, super-victors, with a joy we would not have but for the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us." - Oswald Chambers
My brother in law and I built the house I now live in, and the first thing we did was orient its foundation on my lot. We determined the direction it would face and drove in stakes so that we wouldn't forget and others could see them as well. Once the house was oriented, measured, and laid out, we dug the foundation. In my case the crew dug until they found a solid slab of rock and on that rock base we formed and poured the foundation. My house is founded on a rock.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
Matthew 7:24-25 ESV
Our faith should be carefully thought out, positioned, and founded as well. When we determine to orient ourselves towards God and Jesus Christ, then build our house and our lives of faith on the gospel rock, it will be unmovable by all but an act of God Himself... and He is good, faithful, and loves us.
So, in our opening verse today when Paul says that we are killed all the day long and counted as sheep to the slaughter, he isn't speaking of failure, he is quoting Psalm 44 where the psalmist is calling to God for protection and help as we do so often.
“Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Psalms 44:22 KJV
The interesting part of this psalm is that these people don't personally know of God's saving hand. They are calling on Him based on stories of long ago rescue...
“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.”
Psalms 44:1-2 KJV
In this psalm the people are digging once more to find the ancient foundations of their faith. They need to see that what once was known is still there and true, and that the God of their forefathers, who saved His people in days of old, is still present and willing to save them now. In this psalm, God didn't forget His people; they had forgotten Him. He didn't remove His joy from them, but rather, they had lost sight of it. How often does trouble and fear lead us back to our faith; then, in the midst of our enemy's camp we begin to sing God’s praises and call on His power and mercy? Here in sight of our enemy we seek and find our joy in Him, but we don't realize our peace and comfort in the victory over our adversaries so much as we find it in God’s presence. In spite of all those who would harm us, or whatever terrible circumstance we find ourselves in, we are renewed in God’s truth, peace and comfort. In this way we not only rejoice when God intercedes and saves us, but we are overcome with joy in the midst of our troubles, because we are standing faithfully in His presence.
Prayer:
Father, I praise your name in my sorrow and affliction because you are the foundation of my life. My joy comes in abiding with you, even as I wait in my suffering for your strong hand to move. My happiness abounds in your victory, but my confidence and joy comes from your presence, and the knowledge that your love will never abandon me. You are the rock beneath my feet. You give firm footing to the cornerstone, which is Christ, who holds my house, and keeps me ever facing you. Lord, rest your hand on me always, let your Holy Spirit open my eyes, and your Son Jesus lead me into your Word, and your truth. I find my joy in you Abba... never let me doubt or wander. Never let me lose sight of your unfailing love and in knowing that you abide within me during all my hardship and suffering. There is no place you are not, and your peace and joy meet me amidst my enemies, and my hardships, without fail. Praised be your name now and forevermore.
Rich Forbes