Peace and Joy

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
~Romans 5:1-4

Rejoice in our sufferings..... that's a tough one. It's not something that comes natural. Our human tendencies would be to get angry or frustrated.

Do I rejoice when I've had a summer like we've had? My husband and I were excited to finally get ahead in life when we sold our house and moved. We were excited when we were going to have money in a savings account in case of emergencies.... well, it's now since been dwindled with everything that's hit us....

First was the stove.... broke the first day of company..... next was our hot water tank.... broke the first day of our 2nd set of company..... third was our dog suddenly not able to walk and us needing an emergency vet visit... fourth was our computer crashing and needing to replace it... fifth was our modem for the computer..... kicked the bucket.... daughter's bike broke so she's riding mine.... van repair bills.... the list goes on....

What we've experienced this summer is not a suffering like some of you may have experienced like the loss of a family member or friend. Perhaps even the loss of a marriage or friendship. Some might say that what my family went through is not even considered suffering. Regardless, God asks us to rejoice in our circumstances...

Is that easy? It's definitely not. Each day my husband and I committed our finances to Him and asked for guidance to make the right choices in our purchases for our new home. All the things we were hoping to provide our family with didn't happen. Because we were hit with all these unexpected big expenses, it showed us once again that God is in control. We can have all our ducks lined up but God rearranges them his way. We see that God is still faithful. Yesterday I felt our fridge warming up quite quickly and I prayed in earnest that God could fix that. Might seem silly but God heard my prayer about the fridge and it's now working.

Why do I need to rejoice through all this? Sufferings produce perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope. Hope doesn't disappoint us because God poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Through all our life journeys, sufferings come in many different ways. Each of us handles it differently. My encouragement to you is to praise God and rejoice in Him when going through trials because you'll come out a much stronger person in the end. It's not easy going through the tough times. This summer I've shed many tears over all these unexpected financial expenses. They've completely dwindled our savings... what we wanted to have for backup is now gone and we're in complete dependence on God's provisions if we have any more big expenses. Somehow we get through each day with God taking us one step at a time through our sufferings.

What is robbing you of your joy in Christ?
What does suffering look like for you?
Where are you in your journey? Are you in the middle of the trial or have you come through that difficult time? How have you changed?
What encouragement can you give someone you know who is going through a difficult time?
How can you rejoice for your trials or sufferings? What can you praise God for today?

Don't let Satan use your trials to take your eyes off Jesus.... He's our hope.