That You May Believe - Week 20
Indestructible joy!
Have you ever felt doomed or defeat? Have you ever felt like the odds are against you? Have you ever thought that what you’re facing is insurmountable? The world is winning, and God is losing?
When you read the Gospel of John and especially chapter 16, you will come to a realization that John writes to people who, at times, feel that life is orchestrated against them. Those times when you don’t have the answers and you’re struggling for the meaning behind the suffering. In the middle of this atmosphere, Jesus reveals His plan for indestructible joy. How is this possible in a world that is broken and spinning with suffering?
That is exactly what the disciples are struggling with.
To help in our understanding of indestructible joy, Jesus uses the metaphor of childbirth. Our first thought in how Jesus would use this metaphor would be that if I can keep my eyes on the prize (the child), then I can push through the pain (no bun intended). That’s not wrong within itself but can we look a little deeper into what Jesus is communicating. It’s more than just the labor pains preceding the child, it’s the understanding that the labor pains produce the child. We can find ourselves just living through the cycles of life and trying to endure the pain, hoping that joy will follow. What Jesus is saying to the disciples and to us is that it’s the very pain that we are experiencing that produces indestructible joy. Have you ever had the thought that during your pain, God is building within you joy, or are we just waiting for the pain to stop and joy follows?
I challenge you to pause in the middle of your suffering and realize that life in Christ is not just an attempt to survive this cycle of life, and then I will get a little relief. That Christ is doing something supernatural in the middle of your pain, and the result is indestructible joy that no one can take from you.
John 16:1-33
Jeremiah 29
James 1:1-5
Take a moment and journal about your suffering in detail, don’t leave anything out, include names, places and incidents be very specific.
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Now, as you read through those words, ask God to show you how He is building indestructible joy in you, in the middle of your pain. He is turning your sorrow into joy. Transition from just surviving the sorrow cycles to realizing it’s a work of God in your life. This will change the lens in which you view the pain of your life.
Miss Sunday?
Watch the message from service below.
Video will be available by Tuesday.
