January 18, 2024January 18, 2024

More Fast Day 4 Devotional

by in More Fast 2024
5

January 18, 2024 

REJOICING THROUGH THE TEARS!

Min. Dana Edwards

Psalm 30: 1-5-I will extol You Oh LORD, for You have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me. Oh LORD,  my God, I cried out to You and You healed me. Oh LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His Holy name. His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

Life can really throw us some hard balls, can’t it? And it seems like they are coming faster now than before. One can hardly catch a breath before another ball is thrown. Although we try to dodge these balls, we find that there’s always that one or two that just hits us and knocks us to our knees! 

We sometimes find ourselves lamenting and groaning over situations and circumstances and just the posture of this sick, cruel world we live in. David says in Psalms 6:6-7, I am weary with my groanings all night I make my bed swim.  I drench my couch with my tears. My eyes waste away because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies.

For sure, not one person will escape this life without shedding some tears! Medically speaking, there are three different types of tears we shed; 1. Basal tears are tears that lubricate the eyes. 2.  Reflex tears are tears that remove irritants from the eyes and aid the immune system. 3. Emotional tears. Emotional tears serve a biological function by excreting stress inducing hormones built up through times of emotional distress. The latter are the tears we often find ourselves releasing. 

As we shed our tears, those of us who have faith in God can also rejoice. We can rejoice through our tears because we have God on our side. ( Psalm 118:6). In Psalm 30:1- 5, David gives five reasons why we can rejoice: 

  1. When we were down and out for the count, God lifted us up. Psalm 40: 2- He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay. And He set my feet upon a rock making my footstep firm.
  2. God does not allow our enemies to rejoice over us!  Psalm 41:11 says, by this I know that thou favoriteth me because my enemy doth not triumph over me. 
  3.  God healed us when we were on our bed of affliction. Psalms 41:3 says, the Lord sustains them on their sick bed and restores them from their bed of illness. 
  4. He saves us! Here it is right in the text in verse 3 it says, You brought my soul up from the grave! The best news of all. Titus 3:5 says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His Mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. 
  5. He gave us eternal life. Right  in verse 3b, it says, You have kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit! 

John puts it like this in John 5:25- Jesus says, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life, he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death (straight) to life! 

So yes, we may cry and we may have some bad days, but we can always rejoice through the tears because God has been good to us!