Darkness Will Not Overcome The Light
Happy Friday, everyone!
“It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand it. All I want is for them to be happy.” I said this to the Lord as I was spending time with Him last Saturday morning. Even as I am writing this blog I am crying. Earlier last week, something major happened in the life of someone I love dearly. For the remainder of the week, I wrestled with worries about this person and couldn’t find the right words to pray. I was angry, hurt, but knew I had to keep it together even though I know it was obvious to those that really know me that I was not in a good place.
I don’t know about you guys, but in my family and even in my friend group, I have been designated as the sounding board, calm one in crisis and the voice of reason. I couldn’t even tell you how I got titles, but I have them. Naturally, I am pretty chill. When crisis happens I am calm because to me, there is no time to add to the crisis. There is only time to pray, come up with a plan, remain calm, and execute the plan. After all is said and done, I am known to finally respond and/or allow myself to feel the weight of what happened. This time around, I was different. In this situation where someone I loved dearly was deeply hurt all I saw was red and that red wasn’t for the blood of Jesus LOL. It was red for anger which was fueled by what I considered to be justifiable reasons to sit in that anger and let it fester to something ugly. However, thank God for Jesus! Thank God, that He is God and that I am not. Praise God that even in my anger He is compassionate to me and yields my heart. Thank God that Jesus prays for me (us)! Thank God that He intercedes on our behalf and doesn’t treat us the way we treat others when all we see is red. Thank God that because of Jesus, when God the Father sees red, He sees the Blood of Christ that I so casually forget about in my anger.
I tend to keep my blog posts short and to the point, but there are two different things I want to talk about in this blog post which may make it a bit longer, but stay with me, it will be worth it.
The first thing I want to talk about is this anger. I recently realized that I have some unresolved anger in my heart. Truth be told, I had no idea I had any anger in my heart until I noticed some of my responses, a.k.a my speech. As I said earlier in this post, something happened to someone I love dearly. They were hurt by someone else and it grieved me beyond what words can properly articulate. I was praying and I told the Lord, “I do not have a kind words to say about this situation or the person who hurt the one I love.” I felt so justified in my anger and to some, if I shared what happened, would consider me to be justified. As I was praying, I opened up my Bible to Ephesians 5. Before I could start reading, my eyes scanned over to Ephesians 4:32. It reads, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” LOL, y’all, let me tell you right now, the Bible is alive, breathing and sharper than any double edged sword. Here I was telling the Lord I have not a kind word to say and He responds right away with how I need to adjust my heart, attitude and soul. I then decided to read the end of Ephesians 4, starting from verse 20-32. Again, the Holy Spirit responded through His Word about my attitude and the anger in my heart.
The second thing I want to talk about is happiness verses joy. I recently heard someone share that nowhere in the Bible does it say that we will be happy. I thought to myself, dang, well that stinks LOL. It stinks and it’s true. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we will be happy, however, the Bible does use the word joy! In John 16:33, the Bible tells us, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous, [ be confident, be undaunted, be filled with JOY]; I have overcome the world. [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]”
James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Now that verse can seem insensitive to Christians and even non-Christians however, it is not. What that verse is saying is there is JOY that comes from the results of trials, not in trials themselves. The testing of your faith produces perseverance and perseverance brings maturity. Let me tell you something, to believe in Jesus and walk with Him, you will need perseverance that can only come from Him.
Joy doesn’t mean that I am jumping around with excitement and happy that I am in a trial, angry or whatever the case may be. It does mean that in my spirit, my heart and even my attitude, I am confident of who I belong to, that He promises joy and that because He has overcome the world, that I can have JOY! I can be grieved and still be full of joy that He will turn the situation around. I can trust Him and his character.
Earlier I said, I just want this person to be happy and I still want that for them. However, I have to remember that God the Father loves them more than I do and doesn’t just desire them to be happy; he desires them to have unspeakable joy…joy that will sustain in every season until the coming of Christ. He desires that for them, for me, and for you.
If you’re reading this and don’t know or believe in Jesus, that’s okay. Welcome to On Fridays, We Clean and know that the God of the universe is absolutely besotted with you. He loves you with a love that we’ll never truly understand because of our flawed understanding of love. He wants you to get to know Him and He’ll wait for you. You don’t have to be afraid of Him. Don’t believe the lies that He’s a mean God, pointing His finger at you and condemning you. He loves you and is waiting with open arms to embrace you with unconditional love. You can give Him a chance. Give Him a chance to show you who he really is, not what people have told you, and experience Him for yourself.
We love you, Jesus and I.
