03/07/2025
Today let’s contemplate how we can remain joyful in God’s promises 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 struggling with our problems and the many crises we face.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
James 1:2-4 ESV
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27 ESV
What I have come to realize in Jesus is that no matter how alone Satan might try to make us feel... we are not. Jesus is interceding for us, and God is with us in every hardship, Jesus 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 overcome, but we also feel it in the midst of them too... from a tiny splinter in our finger to the death throes of cancer, He is there. From a failing grade in school to the loss of a family business, He is there. In all our troubles He is there reminding us that our joy and redemption isn't of this world, but abides within us, and in what lies 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. Here we will find the bedrock of our faith… God’s love as witnessed in Jesus Christ.
"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 its foundation. My house, like our faith, 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 by orienting it to the cornerstone which is Jesus Christ, then build our house and our lives of faith on that 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 earlier verse today when Paul said that we are killed all the day long and counted as sheep to the slaughter, he wasn't speaking of failure, he was quoting Psalm 44 where the psalmist is calling to God for protection and help, just 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...
“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 realize 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 and walked away from His peace. Yet by seeking they found it once more. Are we seeking as well?
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7-8 ESV
How often does trouble and fear lead us back to our faith; then, in the midst of our enemy's camp God prepares a table for us, and we begin to sing God’s praises and call on His power and mercy? There in plain 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, comfort, and joy. 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.
So, How is your house oriented? On what have you built your life… and your house?
Prayer:
Father, I praise your name in my sorrow and affliction because you are the foundation of my life. My joy comes in abiding in 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 me and sets the direction of my cornerstone, which is Jesus Christ, who orients 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... so never let me doubt or wander. Never let me lose sight of your unfailing love and in knowing that you abide within me during my every hardship and suffering. There is no place in which you are not, and your peace and joy meet me wherever I am; even amidst my enemies, and my hardships. You give me peace and joy without fail. Praised be your name now and forevermore and hear my prayers as I reach out to you, and seek you in all things, even those in which I am tempted to see little hope, for you are the rock on which I stand, and your Son Jesus the cornerstone of my faith. Let all mankind seek and find you as I have, and may they all build their houses upon the bedrock of your mercy, grace, and love. I pray this in the name of Jesus who sets my feet on the straight and narrow road towards you, and fuels my peace and joy along the way. Today I call out Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who was, and is, and is to come! Great are you and in you rests all glory and honor forevermore. To this I shout Hallelujah! and claim Amen, Amen, Amen.
““Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation 4:11 ESV
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
Isaiah 55:12-13 ESV
Rich Forbes