06/25/2023
How many times have we experienced sorrow in our lives? We would be unable to count them. Sorrow is a fact of life, and the result of caring, loving, and regret. God uses sorrow for His purposes, and we should see His hand there. In our sorrow God teaches us of Himself.
“"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine.”
John 12:27-30 ESV
Jesus felt sorrow just as we do, but He didn't ask for relief, He asked that God glorify Himself in it. When we feel sorrowful our natural inclination is to ask the Lord to relieve us of it. We ask that the circumstances that have brought us to feel this way be reversed and that joy return to us. In fact, our joy will be replenished in God's good time, but first there is something He wishes to do through us, or in us. We should be more like Christ and know He is there. Jesus was confident when He said "This voice has come for your sake, not mine."
“For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
Psalms 30:5 ESV
Sorrow pains us, and we hurt inside. Our pain may not have an outward wound, but we are wounded nonetheless. In this regard sorrow and suffering are closely linked. In as much as Jesus didn't remove Himself from the suffering that Gods plan for Him contained, neither did he avoid feeling sorrowful. At the death of Lazarus we read this of Jesus...
“Jesus wept.”
John 11:35 ESV
Sorrow is a part of life and love, just as much as joy. If there was no sorrow then life would be bland and shapeless indeed because there would be no gauge by which our joy could be measured. We only know joy by understanding sorrow... we only know righteousness and holiness by understanding what sin and evil is. If all that were in our lives was joy then it would be nothing more than normal; so God teaches us of joy through our sorrow, and he shows us holiness by letting us see the evil in the world.
When my grandmother Holyfield died I felt great sorrow. I would never again hear her voice saying "There's Granny's baby... I have pinto beans on the stove and cornbread in the oven!" And I would never again hug her tight with my face buried in her apron, or later, with her face in my chest as I towered over her. But, in my sorrow I could tell you of her love, and I could feel it fully when I remembered her through it. God uses sorrow to define our world, and to show us Himself as nothing else can.
When we are suffering through a season of sorrow and the Lord comforts us we feel His presence in a way that we could not feel Him otherwise. Why else would Jesus include these words in the beatitudes?
“"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4 ESV
And why else would He compare sorrow and joy to a woman in childbirth?
“When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”
John 16:21 ESV
Our sorrow feels like it will last forever, but it won't. Our sorrow also feels as though it is drawing the very life out of us, but it isn't. Joy will return, and Jesus heals our wounded spirit. Some say that "time heals all wounds", but, although the passage of time numbs us to the pain, only Jesus heals us. Our lessons in sorrow come from God.
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:4-5 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for showing me the heights of joy by letting me experience the depths of sadness. Thank you for revealing your love through the sorrow that defines it. Holy Father, I trust that my sorrow lasts but a night, and I have faith in your Word and hold fast to the promise that joy comes in the morning. Teach me all you would in this darkness, but bring me quickly to the morrow; let my heart feel the sorrow in this night so that your joy can reveal itself fully in the morning. I praise you in the times when my happiness overflows, and I am led to praise you in my sorrow as well, fore only you can draw the sting from my pain, only you can ease my suffering, and only you can comfort my sorrow. Praised be your name and Holy art thou.
Rich Forbes