Trouble Brings Joy

“My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:2‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Why does trouble make you happy?

“You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:3-4‬ ‭ERV‬‬

The enemy shows a counterfeit to joy and happiness. He shows relationships that are going perfect, promotions in jobs, wealth, beautiful houses, free time to watch TV, lots of food, perfect health, ... you name it. The enemy says that these things provide joy and happiness. Then he flips things around and interprets suffering in the wrong way.

Satan lies and says that suffering means that God is not able to provide all that you need. He says that broken marriages, rebellious children, financial hardship, health problems are symptoms that God is not big enough and kind enough and does not love you enough to take care of your troubles.

He started those lies with Eve and she fell for it. He tried the same lies with Jesus and Jesus quoted the word and the devil fled!

“If I had not found joy in your teachings, my suffering would have destroyed me.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:92‬ ‭ERV‬‬

What a powerful truth! We need an arsenal of scripture to quote and claim when troubles come and they will. If I want to be all that God wants me to be, I need suffering in my life. As paradoxical as that may be, the way to grow in the Lord is to allow suffering in our life and dig in deep with it. If I say that I want to be like Christ, point my eyes in the right direction.

We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Every time we pray, picture Jesus at the right hand of God’s throne and thank him for paying the price it took him to get there. He counted it joy! Let us count our suffering as joy to get us where we want to be.

If God Wants You to Suffer

“But they do not let the teaching go deep into their lives. They keep it only a short time. As soon as trouble or persecution comes because of the teaching they accepted, they give up.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13:21‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Sometimes I have a bad attitude because I am suffering. There are several ways that I observe how suffering people react, including myself. We try to analyze why in the world God has allowed this in our lives. We question why God picked us and not our neighbor. We try to buy more or eat more or try to stay entertained more to wipe out our pain. The majority of people just get bitter and decide that God cannot be trusted because they are suffering and they walk away.

“So if God wants you to suffer, you should trust your lives to him. He is the one who made you, and you can trust him. So continue to do good.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭4:19‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Look what this verse says, "If God wants you to suffer." Yes, even though I don't like this sound of this, God has a reason for me to suffer. He says that this is the very reason that He can be trusted. Think about that. Because you are suffering, He should be trusted. Why is that?

“My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1:2-4‬ ‭ERV‬‬

He wants us to be mature and complete. He wants us to be patient in suffering. I was crying out to God this week and was asking God to end my dad's suffering. Pa has ALS and the suffering is unbearable! God clearly spoke to me that night. He made it clear to me that He knows exactly when Pa will be mature and complete. He knows exactly when I will made mature and complete. He knows what it will take in our family's lives to be made mature and complete. He has not turned away on a break and forgotten us.

I must ask myself. Do I want to be all that God wants me to be? Do I want to be complete? Do I want the end result to be good for eternity? Each of us must decide that when we suffer, we will choose to trust. If we walk away bitter and decide that He cannot be trusted, in eternity we will be judged harshly.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt joy. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness can be bought with food or money or entertainment. It is cheap.
Joy is when your circumstances did not change one bit but you changed.

Thank you, Lord for loving me so much that you know what I need, including the suffering. Thank you so much that when I meet you in heaven, you will remember this time of pain and you will say that I pleased you then, instead of grieved you with my attitude. I want it to be said that I trusted you wholly.

What Really Matters

You will not be in heaven two seconds before you cry out, “Why did I place so much importance on things that were so temporary? What was I thinking? ~Rick Warren 

Today make a list of all the material things that you will NOT take with you when you die. Houses, cars, retirement portfolio, clothes, furniture, etc. Continue to make a list of things that make you very happy but nonetheless, you will NOT take them with you. This list may include jobs, travel opportunities, favorite tv shows, FaceTime and Instagram, hobbies, maybe even favorite foods that you can not give up for some reason. 

Lastly make a list of people that you love more than anything else on this earth. Tricky part here is that you must decide if you will see them in heaven or not. Parents, spouses, kids, family members and friends would be on this list. 

Realize that the material things and the earthly things that bring us happiness simply will not be there. Our retiremnt savings will disappear....in a second. The amazing house that you spend a lifetime decorating. The car that we maybe spent too much on and we are straddled with a monthly payment is not there. We have a better transportation in heaven:).

Facetime or Instagram will not be anywhere but for some reason we check it once an hour and determine our selfworth with how many 'likes" we got. Food...oh, glorious favorite foods. The food that we simply cannot give up even if we know that it has a death grip on us, will not be needed in heaven. That piece of cheesecake will not be there and we will wonder why the fascination with it existed In the first place. The older I get, the more I want to eat to exist and not exist to eat. 

Let's get to the people part. When we walk into the gates of heaven, there will be no more chances to cry out and pray for the salvation of that loved one that we wanted to spend eternity with. On the other hand, when we see our loved ones that preceded us, it will seem like it was only a second snice we last saw them on earth. Then we will understand that when God took them a little too early, they were at the greatest place and we should have been so excited for them. God maybe wondered why we got so angry at Him because He knew we were going to see them "tomorrow." 

Casts a a new light on things like suffering or disappointment or losing a loved one. Makes me want to rejoice that "God is making me new" when I am disciplined for my good. Makes me want to have clearer vision and not cloudy vision. And understand that "things we see are here today and gone tomorrow." 

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 MSG

Why did this happen to me?

“Some were laughed at and beaten. Others were tied up and put in prison. They were killed with stones. They were cut in half. They were killed with swords. The only clothes some of them had were sheepskins or goatskins. They were poor, persecuted, and treated badly by others. The world was not good enough for these great people. They had to wander in deserts and mountains, living in caves and holes in the ground.”
Hebrews 11:36-38 ERV

Our pastor is about 6 months into the book of Hebrews. This was a verse from Sunday that may be the most important thought I have had lately. I had written about it yesterday morning and the IPad deleted it when I finished it. I always think that this is the enemy trying to delete a powerful message so I will try again. 

These verses were written about faithful saints...not the wicked. Let that thought sink in. This was taken from the "faith" chapter. How many times have you thought "why is this happening to me?" How often have you thought that the suffering that you are experiencing is unfair because you are a follower of Christ? We have this erroneous thinking that God owes us blessings because we are living right. On the contrary, with Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, there are decisions made in heaven that confound us but should never cause us to lose our faith in the wisdom of God. 

The power of these verses is wrapped around this truth...heaven is NOT here on earth. These saints believed that their extreme joy was waiting for them in heaven and not on earth. A death, an illness, a divorce, a job loss, a wayward child are not a cause to doubt the love of a Heavenly Father. God has the best plan for us. You can't always understand it but you can trust him. His promises are ultimately seen and experienced in heaven. 

“God was pleased with all of them because of their faith. But not one of them received God’s great promise. God planned something better for us. He wanted to make us perfect."
Hebrews 11:39-40a ERV

Never Give Up

“That is why we never give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 ERV

If we flip this verse around, "If we give up as our physical bodies become older, our spirit is not going to be strengthened.

If we long to be stronger, in every way...physically, spiritually, emotionally...we must endure suffering. Obviously, if I want to increase my muscles I must exercise, which is a form of suffering for my body.

if I want to grow in emotional maturity, I must put myself in second place. I must humble myself. I won't grow emotionally if I stay in selfish mode.

But most of all, to grow spiritually, I must accept the trouble and suffering as a form of training that God allows In my life to grow from it. Delayed gratification...the eternal glory is so much greater than my temporary troubles.