Count It All Joy
Julie Hamilton encourages us with how God has been enabling her to look to Jesus and count it all joy amidst a trying season for her family, and shares three practical ways on how we can also do so as we face trials of various kinds.
The past eight months have been increasingly challenging for our family. Our youngest daughter, Vivian, entered a season of health difficulties last December that have seemed to come one right after the other. She has struggled adjusting to new medications. We have had challenging nights and long days in various hospitals seeking answers to the new issues we are facing. We have cared for Vivi during her pain, agitation, restlessness, and struggles with self-harm, all while wishing she could just communicate with us and tell us what was wrong. Most nights as I have wearily crawled into bed I have wondered, “Can I do this again tomorrow?” And honestly, I have wondered many times why life can’t just be a little bit easier. Wouldn’t I be able to serve God better if Vivian was healthy or at least if her current struggles were resolved? Doesn’t God want to see me happy and thriving? Why does this season have to be so long? Haven’t I already learned whatever God feels like He needs to teach me? I find myself flinging around these rash questions as long days end and my emotions run high. I feel stuck in a season of suffering.
The timing of our series from Ecclesiastes has been God ordained. As Pastor Eugene said in his first sermon from Ecclesiastes, the burden of our toil is real. But how do we cultivate contentment and joy in life, even amid struggles?
To put it simply, we look to Jesus. Elizabeth Elliot once said, “God will not protect you from anything that might make you more like Jesus.” And what did Jesus endure? Sleepless nights, continual demands, mocking, scourging and ultimately, death on the cross. 1 Peter 4:12 reminds us, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” And so, we suffer, we face trials, and we wait for His glory to be revealed. But let’s not waste the waiting. Let’s see the wait as both redemptive and helpful. And we can do this knowing that, “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isa 40:28-31)
How would our attitude change if we lived rejoicing amid our trials? Do we truly believe that God is renewing our strength as we wait on Him? Do we willingly submit to our gracious heavenly Father as our sovereign Lord and the Potter who is using all things to shape us into a vessel that is most pleasing to Him? Do we really believe that eternity is coming and that heaven will be a place where all things are made new? Are we living in light of the end?
When I stop navel-gazing…and instead lift my eyes, I can see God at work.
When I stop navel-gazing and feeling sorry for myself and instead lift my eyes, I can see God at work. He is using my trials today to refine me to be more like Jesus. He is teaching me to fix my eyes on Him. He is reminding me that this world is marred by sin, and nothing in it can bring me lasting joy. I am reminded of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
My encouragement to you in whatever your “hard” might be is to look to Jesus and to count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness (Jam 1:2). Practically how do we count it all joy?
1. Stay rooted in God’s Word. Apart from His Word, we become navel-gazers obsessed with our own struggles and bemoaning our own life circumstances. But instead, when we are rooted in God’s Word, we can be like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in its season. (Ps 1:3) As our roots dig deep into Jesus as our source, we will flourish, even when the storm rages around us, and our branches bend and blow in the wind.
2. Speak your frustrations to God who already knows your heart. In times of discouragement, Psalms is one of my favourite books to sit in. We see David pouring out his heart before the Lord with honesty. In Psalm 6 David tells God that he is languishing, and his soul is greatly troubled. He speaks of flooding his bed with tears and drenching his couch with weeping. David calls out to the Lord, asking Him how long He will allow David to suffer. We can be honest with God. He has created us as people with emotions and feelings. Be real and raw with Him as you express your frustrations and struggles, knowing that God can carry our burdens. He hears our weeping, our pleading and our prayers.
3. Receive comfort and give comfort as brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s be community to one another, bearing one another’s burdens. Every one of us has walked a difficult path. Our trials and sufferings may look different, but we have each felt pain, hardship and loss. We have each been, or currently are, discouraged and downtrodden. But as a body, when one member suffers, we all suffer. When one member rejoices, we all rejoice (1 Cor 12:26). Seek to go deeper with one another so that you can truly walk alongside one another. This is hard to do in thirty minutes after church service ends. Find ways to dig into one another’s lives, sharing burdens and pointing one another to Christ. This allows us to share the comfort that we have received from the Lord with one another. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Cor 1:3-4)
So, as I wake each morning, I cling to the fact that God’s mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness! Jesus offers us true gain from our toil. I can look forward with expectancy to the life to come while joyfully living today, knowing that He is using the hard to make me more like Him. I can have peace as I remember that all things come from His hand and that He alone is enough. We each have our own “hard” that we are facing right now. Perhaps that is sickness, marriage difficulties, infertility, aging parents, or financial difficulties. But amid whatever we are facing today, we can lift our eyes to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and has sat down at the right hand of God the Father (Heb 12:2).