Meeting joy on God's terms

"It is when your soul has been blasted bare, when you feel raw and undone, that you can be better bonded to the Savior. And then you not only meet suffering on God's terms, but you meet joy on God's terms. And then God...when I cry to Him out of my affliction, happily shares His gladness, his joy flooding over heaven's walls filling my heart in a waterfall of delight, which then in turn always streams out to others in a flood of encouragement, and then erupts back to God in an ecstatic fountain of praise. He gets your heart pumping for heaven. He injects His peace, power and perspective into your spiritual being. He imparts a new way of looking at your hardships. He puts a song in your heart."
~Joni Erickson Tada, "Hope...The Best of Things", Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, p. 197

I read the above passage last night, and it resounded with me as true. Then this morning, our pastor preached a strong sermon from Zechariah Chapter 8 on the fact that Christ is ruling and reigning now, and His design for His people is good. If we believed that and acted upon it, how different our lives would be! (It was an excellent sermon: I recommend it. It should be available to listen to here soon.)

There were hurting people all around me this morning. People with chronic illness and terrible disease, people preparing to lose family members to death, people struggling with jobs and finances and deep hurts and deep issues of sin. One friend asked, "How do we get through this?" Here is how we get through this. We call out to God in our affliction. And we keep after Him until He has blessed us with His peace, His power, His perspective. We fight for it every minute of every day. And one day, we will be with Him, and we can lay the battle down, and be refreshed for all of eternity.

Joy is not having our trials removed, though it is fine to request that in prayer. Joy is not having your prayers answered how you wish them to be answered. Joy has nothing to do with our circumstances. Joy is knowing that Christ is ruling and reigning and acting for our good. Joy is living in His peace, His power, His perspective. He is our joy.