Skip to main content

Joyful in Hope?


Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. (Romans 12:12-13)

         More gifts to ourselves and those around us. The first one sounds a little strange. Be joyful in hope. Can you have hope without being joyful? Can you be joyful without having hope? This one is very personal at the moment, a case of God’s timing. I scratched my eye yesterday, badly enough that I went to the emergency room this morning. I’ve never gone to the emergency room for me before. It’s such a minor thing, really, but my eye hurts and when a person is in pain, the world seems to constrict down to that pain. I’ve already sent out my prayer request – for wisdom, direction and attitude, especially attitude, every so much for attitude.
          So, joyful in hope. Hope is the belief that a positive outcome will come about no matter how bad the situation is. I know that my eye is going to heal. The doctor even said it should be better in a couple days. I’m supposed to use the medication for seven days. See? Within seven days things will be better (even if not one hundred percent.) There is every reason for hope. I even got an appointment with the ophthalmologist for this afternoon, and my insurance will cover it. But… joyfulness in hope? Um. If I had that, I wouldn’t be asking for prayers about my ‘tude. I don’t feel like singing, “Oh I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.” I feel like singing “Grr, Grrr, Grr, Grrr,” to the beat of stamping feet. And, I’ve noticed that it’s little inconveniences like a scratched eye that bring out the worst attitudes. Maybe bit things put one in shock in a way that little things don’t.
          How does one even have joy when things are not going well. You can’t really. Hope is easy to understand, because hope needs bad circumstances in order to look forward to good ones, but joy? How does one say “Yippee” about pain and poor vision when one is trying to write books and blogs and such?
          Several years ago I led a Bible study on the fruit of the spirit, one of which is joy. One of the resources I read about joy said that joy wasn’t about bouncing around with glee. It was more a sense of contentment or ease found in knowing that someone cares for you, and that said care is and will be enough. In other words, joy involves settling down in God’s will and believing that it’s a good will.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more