{"id":1901,"date":"2019-06-02T13:56:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T13:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=1901"},"modified":"2019-06-02T20:25:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T20:25:16","slug":"can-we-be-sad-and-glad-at-the-same-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=1901","title":{"rendered":"Can We be Sad and Glad at the Same Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><em>Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice <strong>(Psalm 51:8 ESV)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s Sunday afternoon and I\u2019m basking in the unwavering truth that God has made me glad. In spite of life\u2019s despairs, eternal joy cheers my heart, but this perspective doesn\u2019t come naturally.<\/p>\n<p>The temperature is 97, but I prefer our shaded porch at the edge of the forest. At least for now, Lily, our little shih apso, chooses to be with me over the air conditioning on the other side of the door. As mentioned in a previous post, my challenge is to rejoice each day inspite of situations which threaten my gladness. I know from my reader&#8217;s comments that I\u2019m not alone. If we live long enough, we all face dire times which stretch our faith.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus said it: <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. <strong>(John 16:33 ESV)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>No one goes through life unscathed. But trials can be more than something to endure. They can have real purpose.<\/p>\n<p>I pause and allow the rhythmic, cascading flow in our water garden to wash my soul and remind me of the Lord\u2019s constant love and presence. I admire the pink, green and white plants my wife and I added beside the pool. Fans above and in front of me yield a cooling breeze which cuts the heat. Beholding my surroundings reminds me that God\u2019s created things are physical extensions of His Glory to be savored. I rest in the joy of His presence.<\/p>\n<p>Peter, a hero of mine, who wrestled to fully surrendering himself to God, speaks of some amazing eternal truths which bring great joy:<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We have a Living Hope<\/li>\n<li>Our inheritance is safely stowed away, beyond the possibility of corruption<\/li>\n<li>We are currently surrounded by the powerful protection of God<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking of these he says, <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">\u201c<em>In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, <strong>(I Peter 1:6-8 NASB)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These eternal truths stabilize our hearts <em>even though<\/em> we may be distressed (<em>made sorrowful<\/em>) by various trials (<em>provings<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>God is at work in our sorrow, inviting us to press into Him more vigorously, by faith. As we do, we realize joy is never dependent on our circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>James agrees with Peter \u2013 <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><em>\u201cConsider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,<strong><sup>\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing\u201d<strong>(James 1:2-4 NASB)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Having joy in trials seems so wrong, but if the trials can add some lasting, eternal understanding and deepen our faith, would our sufferings be\u00a0 worth it? Could we get to the point James is talking about where we lack nothing because we live with Jesus, our Eternal Joy. I\u2019m starting to believe so. See what I wrote in my journal a couple of weeks ago:<\/p>\n<pre>May 11, 2019 \u2013 I was getting ready to go to bed when a truth I've believed in my head became a reality in my heart. In other words, it went from head knowledge to life knowledge. These extremely difficult times the last few years really have deepened me. I've been forced to come to terms with my emotions and to explore some core level areas with God. He's traveled with me as deep as I've ventured, exposing pain and deep lies He's wanted to heal. I ask Him to go deeper still, as far as He wants to go to keep me focused on what He wants in my life and the lives of those around me. He is my Joy. I need nothing else.<\/pre>\n<pre>As I pondered what I just wrote, I realize that this deep healing, this walking with God through extremely painful things, this stripping away of what I thought was good, and what I expected would happen, has brought about a benefit of enternal quality which actually outweighs the hard realities of what I\u2019ve faced.<\/pre>\n<pre>This is something I would have readily said as a spiritual fact, but now its a growing reality in my heart.<\/pre>\n<p>Years ago, I wouldn\u2019t have thought I could be sad and glad at the same time, but if these hard times are purifying my faith and teaching me that God Himself is my Joy then they are worth the suffering. And when I realize the benefits, I&#8217;m glad.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><em>You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound <strong>(Psalm 4:7 NASB)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Lord, in good times and bad, You are my Joy. You make my heart glad. Thank you for the way You&#8217;re surgically stripping away all else. You and You alone are my Joy. You gladden my heart.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou care enough to give me what I need not what I want. You care enough to break my bones in order to recapture my heart.\u201d <a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> I Peter 1:3-5<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> <u>New Morning Mercies &#8211; A Daily Gospel Devotion<\/u> Crossway, Paul Tripp (June 1<sup>st<\/sup>)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em>Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God&#8217;s nearness in the midst of life&#8217;s adventures. Subscribe below to get email notifications of new posts. We post a few times a month. Thank you for reading.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em>Novels by the Author:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Beyond-Time-could-change-event\/dp\/179035899X\">Beyond Time<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hope-Remains-Sequel-Beyond-Time\/dp\/197345940X\/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1547672424&amp;sr=1-8&amp;keywords=Hope+Remains\">Hope Remains<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all face troubles. Some sorrows remain for years. Yet, inspite of life not turning out as we&#8217;d hoped, we must carry on. How do we remain glad in the midst of sadness? How do we keep the waves of circumstance from tossing us around and knocking us off our feet? Can trials actually increase our capacity for joy and give us something far more stable to center our lives around? What can infuse us with gladness to give our hearts daily courage?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1219,12],"tags":[871,1236,1220,754,971,874,1005,21,512,980,1226,1228,1229,1225,695,944,7,989,1235,1234,1222,1232,1224,1231,481,1227,725,1233,106,110,1221,1230,1223,84],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eternal-gladness","category-joy-in-trials","tag-cheer","tag-consider-it-joy","tag-despair","tag-exceeding-joy","tag-exceedingly-glad","tag-full-joy","tag-future-inheritance","tag-gladness","tag-god-is-joy","tag-grief-to-gladness","tag-his-glory","tag-i-peter-13-5","tag-i-peter-16-8","tag-inheritance","tag-james-12-4","tag-john-1633","tag-joy","tag-keep-on-rejoicing","tag-lacking-nothing","tag-lasting-joy","tag-living-hope","tag-new-morning-mercies","tag-pains","tag-paul-tripp","tag-peter","tag-power-of-god","tag-psalm-47","tag-recaptured-heart","tag-rejoice","tag-rejoice-in-the-lord","tag-shih-apso","tag-sorrowful","tag-take-heart","tag-trials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1917,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions\/1917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}