Comprehensions of Joy

Psalm 40

  I waited patiently for the LORD;
   he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
   out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
   and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth,
   a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
   and put their trust in him.

First things first, a special thanks to everyone who went out of their way to offer encouragement and advise after my last post.  :) I am happy to report that I have since passed through that valley and am back to climbing mountains. 

I have had quite a few thoughts over the past few weeks about the way God works. Because, while it is normal and expected for everyone to go through trials and challenging times, i feel like my time in the pit was a little more intense than "normal." Granted, who is to say what "normal" is.. but at the same time, I've been discouraged, and I dare say I was a little bit more than discouraged. I think it would be fair to admit that I was on the edge of depression. And I really hate to admit that I would ever be that close to the line... but that's what it was. 

In general, I would like to call myself a bit of a dare devil. I like to push things to the edge, go to the line and not quite cross the line. As far as discouragement goes, I have told myself "Let's not do that again." 

Now that I am back to  more joyful season in life I have been looking back at what all could have happened that I would reach such a low point. Shortly after my last blog I found myself in a Starbucks with a great friend and our Bibles open seeking Truth. We came across this passage in Galatians 5 that jumped off the page. 

"You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?  That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.  “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty."- Galatians 5:7-10

It was was quite a moment of revelation. I think I was most discouraged by the fact that I had let myself be defeated, more than that..I had defeated myself because the enemy has no right to defeat us. But, thank goodness Jesus is there to intercede for us and cut in on the enemy.  In my search for joy while I swimming in discouragement, I was reminded of a list of verses that my mom made me memorize before I left home. It is a compilation of verses that state your true identity as a follower of Christ. One of the passages has the heading "I have been Redeemed and Forgiven of all my sins" I was looking at it and I decided to see it in context and I really enjoy the verses around the passage in the list and so I shall share with you what I have found: and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-14

I think after all the verses that I felt were not sinking in and not offering any encouragement..Christ broke through and now everything I read is like soothing cream on a painful wound. Really wonderful and twice as encouraging as the last thing I read.  I really like how this says that the Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Because that totally blows up the lie that we are not good enough people to be baring the name of Christ. I have often felt disqualified by my actions or lack of faith. But that is me disqualifying myself because God has already qualified me. AND!  we're qualified to share in the inheritance. We're qualified to be in the kingdom of light. And, on top of all that... he came to our rescue and pulled us out of darkness and into the kingdom of his Son. SO much wonderful happenings going on in that Truth passage.  One of the most wonderful things I think I have taken away from Perspectives class so far is the idea of the kingdom. The way they explained it is there are two circles side by side. On one circle is kingdom of light that is filled with all sorts of truths about us like how we are loved, important, precious, etc. And the other circle is the kingdom of darkness that is filled with lies about who we are. Lies like, we are not loved, we are not important, failure, etc. And sometimes, the dark circle comes over and darkens our view and creates an eclipse.  We are in darkness by the lies we believe, but the glory of God can always be seen and it pushes out the darkness. I think it adds a whole new perspective to the words in the song How He Loves because it says "When all of the sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory and I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me" 

That's totally true. Yeah, being in darkness was NOT fun at all. But, I got to see God's glory come from behind the darkness and push it away. :) 

Oh I'm running to Your arms
I'm running to Your arms
The riches of Your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world forever reign