JOY-SUFFERING
Thankfully,
joy is an all-season response to life. Even in the dark times, sorrow enlarges
the capacity of the heart for joy. Like a diamond against black velvet, true
spiritual joy shines brightest against the darkness of trials, tragedies and
testing.
1 and 2 Thessalonians, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 54.
In trial and
weakness and trouble, He seeks to bring us low, until we learn that His grace
is all, and to take pleasure in the very thing that brings us and keeps us low.
His strength is made perfect in our weakness. His presence filling and
satisfying our emptiness, becomes the secret of
humility that need never fail. The humble man has learned the secret of abiding
gladness. The weaker he feels, the lower he sinks, and the greater his humiliations
appear, the more power and the presence of Christ are his portion.
Andrew Murray
Therefore, I
bind these lies and slanderous accusations to my person as an ornament; it
belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached and
reviled, and since all this is nothing but that, as God and my conscience
testify, I rejoice in being reproached for Christ's sake.
John Bunyan
Grace Abounding, Evangelical Press, 2000, p.
143.
Romanian
pastor Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years in prison for
preaching the gospel. Although his captors smashed four of his vertebrae and
either cut or burned 18 holes in his body, they could not defeat him. He
testified, “Alone in my cell, cold, hungry, and in rags, I danced for joy every
night.” During this time he turned to a fellow prisoner, a man he had led to
the Lord before they were arrested, and asked, “Have you any resentment against
me that I brought you to Christ?” His response: “I have no words to express my
thankfulness that you brought me to the wonderful Savior. I would never have it
another way.” These two men exemplify the supernatural joy that can be
experienced by believers who live on the edge of death as the result of being
severely persecuted.
Author Unknown
Our Daily Bread, Thursday, February 21.
Though my
natural instinct is to wish for a life free from pain, trouble, and adversity,
I am learning to welcome anything that makes me conscious of my need for Him.
If prayer is birthed out of desperation, then anything that makes me desperate
for God is a blessing… Puritan pastor William Gurnall makes this point in his
writings, “The hungry man needs no help to teach him how to beg.”
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p.
235, 234.
An evidence
that our will has been broken is that we begin to thank God for that which once
seemed so bitter, knowing that His will is good and that, in His time and in
His way, He is able to make the most bitter waters sweet.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 70.
In our
sufferings for Christ there is joy, not so when we suffer for our sins.
John Trapp
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 159.
The apostles
went away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name
of Christ, that they were graced so far as to be disgraced for the name of
Christ!
Thomas Watson
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 159.
Paul and
James both say that we should rejoice in our trials because of their beneficial
results. It is not the adversity considered in itself
that is to be the ground of our joy. Rather, it is the expectation of the
results, the development of our character that should cause us to rejoice in
adversity. God does not ask us to rejoice because we have lost our job, or a
loved one has been stricken with cancer, or a child has been born with an
incurable birth defect. But He does tell us to rejoice because we believe He is
in control of those circumstances and is at work through them for our ultimate
good.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 175. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
You must
submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.
John Calvin
There are rare and wonderful species of joy that flourish only in
the rainy atmosphere of suffering.
John Piper
Desiring God, 1996, p. 111, Used by
Permission, www.desiringGod.org.
Joy in God in
the midst of suffering makes the worth of God – the all-satisfying glory of God
– shine more brightly than it would through our joy at any other time. Sunshine
happiness signals the value of sunshine. But happiness in suffering signals the
value of God. Suffering and hardship joyfully accepted in the path of obedience
to Christ show the supremacy of Christ more than all our faithfulness in fair
day.
John Piper
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 256.
People are
not prepared or able to rejoice in suffering unless they experience a massive
biblical revolution of how they think and feel about the meaning of life. Human
nature and American culture make it impossible to rejoice in suffering. This is
a miracle in the human soul wrought by God through His Word.
John Piper
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 258.
The night
dews of affliction and disappointment may fall thickly upon it – the storms of
sorrow may beat heavily against it – the winds of adversity may howl fearfully
around it – but, like those fabled lamps of which we read, that, century after
century, illumined the sepulchers of the east – burning with calm and steady
light, amid the desolation of all earthly things – unchanged and unextinguishable; so does this joy – this living spark
struck off from the great source of light and life – outlive all deaths, all
changes, until it accompanies the freed spirit of the believer in whom it
dwells, back to those abodes of joy from whence it came.
John MacDuff
The Throne of Grace, Alexander Strahan
Publishers, 1865.
The more we
rejoice in our testings, the more we realize that
they are not liabilities but privileges, ultimately beneficial and not harmful,
no matter how destructive and painful the immediate experience of them might
appear
John MacArthur
James,
Moody Publishers, 1998, p. 21.
[There is] a unique fullness of joy that the Lord graciously provides His children when they willingly and uncomplainingly endure troubles while trusting in Him – regardless of the cause, type, or severity of the distress. He will always use them for our benefit and for His own glory. It is not because of some sort of religious masochism, but rather a sincere trust in the promise and goodness of our Lord, that we can look on trials as a welcome friend, knowing with Joseph that what may have been meant for evil against us, God means for good (Gen. 50:20; cf. Rom. 8:28).
John MacArthur
James,
Moody Publishers, 1998, p. 21.
Let thy great
joy and comfort evermore be, to have His pleasure done
in thee, though in pains, sickness, persecutions, oppressions, or inward griefs
and pressures of heart, coldness or barrenness of mind, darkening of thy will
and senses, or any temptations spiritual or bodily.
Rules and Instructions for a Holy Life.
Out of the
fullness of God the Father you have been blessed with large numbers and are
predestined from eternity to enjoy forever continual and unfading glory. The
source of your unity and election is genuine suffering, which you undergo by
the will of the Father and of Jesus Christ, our God. Hence, you deserve to be considered happy.
Ignatius
The Letter of Ignatius to the
Ephesians, Introduction.