This photo was taken on Mother’s Day 2023, it was a happy day. My Aunt Debbie was making me laugh and I was full of joy with my new baby girl! She was one month old in this photo. My children are my joy!
Today, I am struggling to hold on to joy. The enemy has been fighting me night and day. Sending his threats, taunts, accusations, and fear. I’m leaving my husband whom I’ve been with for ten years. However, my heart cannot take another act of violence from the hands that are supposed to protect me, another lie, or another betrayal! Anyway the focus of this message is to give God the glory! Faith is tested through fire, and I pray I survive this to tell you all of his goodness YET again!
Many times throughout the Bible you see men and women from all walks of life going through heavy, sad, dark and depressing things. Sometimes it was their sin that lead to the consequences and others it was from the actions of others. Sometimes it’s merely a test of faith! All of our lives have been touched by tragedy in some form or another. It is all apart of the human experience. We live in a fallen world, and sin is now praised at an all time high.
God had a way of bringing little bits of joy in the midst of suffering. God brings laughter to those who thought they would never smile again.
Let’s dive into the word and find some joy to cling to for when the trials of life come.
There was a man named Job in the Bible, he was a godly and upright man. However, Satan came to God and said that the only reason Job was so good was because of his great wealth, and blessings. Satan asks God if he can tempt Job. Notice Satan immediately brought accusations against Job, that he had no proof of being true. Our enemy is the Father of Lies, and an accuser of the children of God. His hatred knows no bounds! God being all knowing, grants the request of Satan. At first glance this seems unfair and cruel for God to allow such! We must remember that God sees things from beginning to end. He already knows how our lives will pan out long before we do!
While Satan was rubbing his hands together in satisfaction, God was laughing on the inside. God knows that he has already planned to vindicate, prosper, and restore all that Job lost. Job lost his children, livestock, servants, health, and wealth. Job is in deep despair, but God gives him double what he had before after the time of testing. This changed Job forever, grief changes people, sickness changes people, isolation changes people. However, Job still clung to his faith, although it was really hard.
Job’s friends are trying to be supportive, but eventually even they abandoned Job. They truly believed that God only brought punishment for sins, they too accused Job. They had experienced God’s goodness and in their mind if Job would fess up then his laughter would be restored. Job’s joy was indeed restored, and how much richer and deeper were those blessings after all he endured to enjoy them. Have you ever felt wrongly accused or alone in suffering?
“He will yet fill your mouth with laughing, And your lips with rejoicing.” (Job 8:21 NKJV)
Let’s talk about Sarah, the wife of Abraham who was called The Father of Many Nations! Father, a title Abraham longed to possess, as he and Sarah had been unable to conceive for many years. They had reached old age and were still childless. One day God tells Abraham that he is going to allow them to conceive a son one day. He didn’t exactly say when and that must have been so hard to know a promise in your heart, but yet to have seen it come to pass! Soon afterwards three divine beings came to confirm this message to Abraham. They tell him “Sarah will have a son, at this same time the next year. Sarah overhears this conversation between her husband and these angelic beings. Her is her response:
“Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!””
(Genesis 18:11-15 NKJV)
Friends I am here to tell you firsthand, I have been guilty of the same! I have heard God whisper his word to me, I’ve seen his miracles, I’ve heard his voice in dreams, and I’ve seen my night visions come to pass! And yet like Sarah, I have sarcastically disagreed with the promises of God. Why because I am human and so are you! We have moments when we doubt ourselves and God! Sarah had let the dream die, she no longer clung to hope and yet God still kept his covenant! Sarah wasn’t the only one struggling to believe Abraham too doubted here’s his own initial response:
“Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?””
Genesis 17:15-17 NKJV
Mind you not only has Sarah already given her husband over to another woman to conceive a child, through her servant. They are very old! Their surrogate child is a teenager already! Sarah was bitter and tried so hard to fix things by doing this foolish thing, that only brought more pain. Then finally get the baby they have longed for all these years! Here is how she reacted to God’s wonderful promise!
“And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.” She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.””
Genesis 21:6-7 NKJV
Have you ever felt like something that you have been praying for will never happen? Have you ever been so low that you thought to give up believing and play it safe and stay in only your logical mind? No longer looking for miracles, and seeing them as old foolish bedtime stories? Friend pick your faith back up, God is still in the miracle working business!
Let’s look at a few more verses about the joy God can bring.
“Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.”
Luke 6:21 NKJV
All day yesterday I had to fight to keep the tears at bay, I felt a deep sorrow come over me. My thoughts racing a mile a minute, with how will things workout, will I ever be a peace again? The loneliness heavy on my shoulders. I pressed on, I had my teen son come and read his Bible chapter to me. As soon as he shut my bedroom door I ran to my closet and fell on my face and wept. I prayed the best I could but my breath was caught in my agony. After I released the tears, I got up and resolved to keep going! As I opened the closet door I heard, “God has given me laughter.” I heard it in my inner spirit. I was confused but I instantly thought of Sarah! All day today I was burning with it, I knew I had to write about it.
When I was a young girl, I dreamed of being in a very large and very tall tower, and my parents were looking for me and calling out to me. I was sitting at an office desk while in this tower, and I remember seeing like the phone and stuff. I always wanted to be a secretary when I grew up. Then as I heard their calls I went to the door of this structure the door was already open because that’s how it looks in real life. This tower is in my town of my birth. It’s a very real place. I look over the edge and they ask me”Marissa, how did you get up there?” Instead of answering them I begin laughing hysterically.
I knew I was called by God, from a child but never could understand why. Why would you want me? God gave me laughter many times! Still all these years I have been searching for that place! A place where I am finally safe from all of my pain, all the weights of my past. God bring me laughter!
“A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.”
Proverbs 17:22 NKJV
Know this friend, God is not a respecter of persons, meaning he doesn’t withhold his goodness from anyone that is willing to come to him. God sends the rain for the good and bad people because of his great love! He never changes he is the same today, tomorrow, and forever.
I am getting tired and need to get to bed, but I hope that you will muster up faith for your own life, or stand in faith for someone else! Don’t let God pass you by, reach out and see for yourself.
“Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.””
Psalms 126:2 NKJV
May God bless you and keep you! Happy Reading!
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