You Were Made For Joy
By Alex Wilkinson
At times it can seem as though there is no resurrection from our personal crucifictions. As we bravely enter into a life with Christ, suffering, pain, and humiliation are expected. We embrace the challenge - although not always at first - knowing that enduring this season of life will indeed bring us into closer union with the heart of our Lord. But then the season turns into a perpetual state of dredging along and it is all too easy to accept the weight of our cross as a measure of who we are. Jesus’ life did not end on the cross. He does not invite us into death but into life!
The psalms challenge us time after time to sing a new song! Ladies, our song is of joy! Jesus breathes into us chronic joy, not sorrow. Yes, our God embraced the suffering of the cross so that He could be with us and us with Him ever more intimately in our human anguish. He showed us the power and immensity of His great love through this suffering. However, too often we stay in this place of sorrow; we convince ourselves that hi is what the Lord has called us into. Our God did not rest in heartache. Our God transfigures frustration and anger to love and delight.
Too often we accept our lives to be inflamed with suffering, yet our hearts are burning for joy, whether we know that or not. God is awaiting within the fire of our souls to set our lives ablaze not with perpetual pain and gloom, but with light and life!
Too often we justify our misery, yet every fiber of our being longs for liberation and freedom from the chains that we carry. God is waiting for an invitation to break the chains that bind our hearts.
These past few months, it has seemed as if my life has been a song of sorrow, but it is time to sing a new song. Everyday we are invited to change the tune of our songs, to sing joy and praise to our Lord and savior. We are never promised that the pain will go away or that our suffering won’t return. What we are promised is in the midst of this life, in the glory of each day, we can continually return to the overwhelming joy of our Creator.
Suffering and pain is no place to stay. Sisters! Do not get comfortable or complacent to the pain that slowly tears at your heart! Allow your Lord to speak this truth into wherever you are: You were made for JOY.