We were scheduled to get the storm of the year today. Projections from 4 to 14 inches were headed our way. Ahem. Today, I see gray clouds and muddy lawns. I feel pressure in my head, but sheesh, no beautiful white stuff. Whenever storms brew, my next thought now is, will the migraine hit?
I’ll be honest, I never thought I’d be writing about pain. Here we are today, in this century, and we haven’t landed on ways to cure pain effectively. I suffer from migraines. Here’s the sticky about that, yours is different, but what I know for sure, we all have pain. We all have areas in our life that hurt. May it be physical, emotional, spiritual pain, we respond and must decide how we live.
Will I turn to bitterness or will I turn to joy? In the days that have left me in my bed with little to do but keep the lights out, I have had time to think. If this is my life, if pain is my life and I’m given one chance to live it, then, when I can speak, when I can write, I will proclaim God’s faithfulness in my life.
He is my defender. He is my joy. I love how Paul speaks to the Thessalonica church here in 1 Thessalonians 3: 7-10.
7 So, my dear family, we are comforted about you, in all our difficulties and troubles, because of your faithfulness. 8 Now, you see, we are really alive, if you are standing firmly in the Lord. 9 For what thanks can we give back to God about you, for all the joy which we celebrate because of you in the presence of our God, 10 praying with even more fervour than you can imagine, night and day, that we may see you face to face and may put into proper order anything that is lacking in your faith?
New Testament for Everyone (NTE) Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011
Greek: euphrosune–Note: “Joy” is associated with life, e.g., 1Th 3:8, 9. Experiences of sorrow prepare for, and enlarge, the capacity for “joy…
https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/Dictionary/viewTopic.cfm?topic=VT0001551
We encourage one another in our difficulties. You see, I really never was alone. My first line was family helping and caring for me. Then, people checking on me daily and texting, telling me they were praying for me. Offering help.. Faithful. Standing in the gap for me. The days have been long, and they have not been perfect. I have doubted. (I’ll write much more about that.) Yet, today, it is important for me to say. Thanks. Thanks for the joy of his presence.
Notice the word I shared with you. Euphrosone. Experiences of sorrow prepare for and enlarge the capacity for JOY. Any day now that doesn’t have pain, I live with a little more gumption then before. I try to capture more in my day. Maybe you can understand what I mean, a day when the heaviness of sadness is lighter, you see sunshine and celebrate. Or you see how far you have come, or a spouse has come, or a child has progressed, the darkness fades, the hope rises.
Capacity for joy. So, Lord, whatever is lacking in my faith today, rise it to the top. Let’s work on that, because you are faithful. You have brought me thus far.
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