Your Grief Will Become Joy

Your Grief Will Become Joy

May 9, 2013

Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter

“From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”  So he left there and went to a house belonging to a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next to a synagogue.  Crispus, the synagogue official, came to believe in the Lord along with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized.  Acts 18:6c-8

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?  Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”  John 16:19-20

Piety

Father, help us to sing a new song today.  Challenge us to put away the songs we know so well and pick up something new and challenging that we can sing out to the world.

Study

Paul put himself fully into his work yet still faced rejection of his message.  Not to be discouraged by the lack of success in preaching to the Jews, Paul turned to convert the Gentiles with much success. 

Success in proclaiming the Good News cannot be measured like the achievement of a business plan.  Don’t get me wrong.  Sometimes you need to have a plan for what you are going to do.  However, failure to meet with success does not mean that our efforts are a failure in the eyes of the Lord. 

Jesus knew this first hand.  He saw the results of His work in the fear of Peter who denied him three times.  He saw the results of His work in the treason of Judas who betrayed him.  He saw the results of His work in the jealously of James and John who wanted to sit at his side in heaven. Yet Jesus persisted because in the fullness of time, Jesus knows the Kingdom of God will be at hand.

Action

Just as Jesus persisted, Paul persisted.  However, we are easily discouraged.  If the Word is hard to understand, we move on to another passage.  We are like the rich man who wants to get into heaven.  We want the easy answer.  If we do not get it, then we walk away in sadness.  However, there is no easy answer except for us to pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus up Calvary.

What is your cross today?  What is your challenge or obstacle?  Are you looking for someone else to roll away the stone or will you do it yourself?