Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [48] Sunshine and Rain

Pensive? Sad?

Life in a Minor Key

Some people seem to be born or made sad. Because of their biological makeup or some childhood trauma they rarely wear a smile and they are often clothed in sadness.

Others - fewer I will grant - seem always merry! I once knew a school teacher who consistently and continually wore a smile!

What demeanour should mark out the redeemed soul?

The Christian life is often lived in a minor key. We must never say this to justify me-itis, a morbid disposition or a joy-less spirit. But the brute reality of living in a  fallen, broken, dying and persecuting world means that sparks will fly upward and sorrow will often knock on the front door.

The Christian servant Amy Carmichael, looked back on her life's work like this:

Will not the end explain

The crossed endeavour, earnest work foiled

The strange bewilderment of good purpose spoiled

The clinging weariness, the inward strain

Will not the end explain?

Carmichael was no morose missionary.

Our Saviour was  a Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53) on the one hand, and on the other hand we read that he was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit (Luke 10), and for the joy set before him endured the cross (Hebrews 12). He sets up the balanced model by which we should judge our own disposition, and a target we might aim for.

It is quite possible to follow the contours of our hereditary make-up or personal story, rather than Scripture. And in either direction: too sad or too upbeat.

What we seek is the true balance found in the life of Jesus Christ, who was both Son of Man and Son of God.

Psalm 126 breathes the Spirit of Christ. Here we find the realistic combination of Joy and Sorrow, Sunshine and Rain.

Let's turn the psalm around and consider sorrow first:

Harps on the Willow Tree

The psalm was written after long years of captivity had come to an end (sometimes the Lord allows long captivity to test the mettle of our souls).

In those weary days they prayed like this: 

Restore our fortunes, Lord,
    like streams in the Negev.
⁵ Those who sow with tears
    will reap with songs of joy.
⁶ Those who go out weeping,
    carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
    carrying sheaves with them.





They longed for escape from captivity. Freedom would be like drinking from streams in the desert. Freedom would bring harvest-like joy. The approach to harvest, with last year's grain almost gone, was always an anxious time. But it was soon overcome by harvest's jubilant joy.

So in captivity, unable to play their joyful harps, they prayed for restored fortunes!

And God heard their prayers! The Lord restored the fortunes of Zion! He does!

So let us pray! What captivity is getting you down? Pray your way out!

Joy was soon their lot:

Ecstatic Joy

And not any old Joy, ecstatic joy! Look:

¹ When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dreamed.
² Our mouths were filled with laughter,
    our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
    ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
³ The Lord has done great things for us,
    and we are filled with joy.

Freedom news spreading across the world! Mouths filled with laughter! Tongues caroling out songs of joy. Hearts filled with joy. Exclamations of answered prayer, "The Lord has done great things  for us." 

Freedom joy heightened by the past experience of slavery.

Summing it all Up

There will be moments in all our lives when it rains, and even pours. Equally there will be moments when our hearts - and mouths - are filled with divine and ecstatic joy. This is the balanced Christian life. 

How balanced is your spiritual experience?

Deep down in our hearts where the Spirit of Christ lives, fountains of living waters are bubbling up all the way to eternal life. Eternal life is eternal joy.

A SONG FOR THE DAY

When I choose a song, I pay less attention to the stable it comes from and more attention to the words: do the words line up with Scripture? For this reason, I've chosen this wonderful, faithful new hymn about the joy of salvation.

Man of sorrows Lamb of God
By His own betrayed
The sin of man and wrath of God
Has been on Jesus laid

Silent as He stood accused
Beaten mocked and scorned
Bowing to the Father's will
He took a crown of thorns

Oh that rugged cross
(My salvation
Where Your love poured out over me)
Now my soul cries out
Hallelujah
Praise and honor unto Thee

Sent of heaven God's own Son
To purchase and redeem
And reconcile the very ones
Who nailed Him to that tree

Oh that rugged cross
My salvation
Where Your love poured out over me
Now my soul cries out
Hallelujah
Praise and honour unto Thee

Now my debt is paid
It is paid in full
By the precious blood
That my Jesus spilled

Now the curse of sin
Has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed

Now my debt is paid
It is paid in full
By the precious blood
That my Jesus spilled

Now the curse of sin
Has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed

Oh that rugged cross
My salvation
Where Your love poured out over me
Now my soul cries out
Hallelujah
Praise and honor unto Thee

See the stone is rolled away
Behold the empty tomb
Hallelujah God be praised
He's risen from the grave

Oh that rugged cross
My salvation
Where Your love poured out over me
Now my soul cries out
Hallelujah
Praise and honor unto Thee
Praise and honor unto Thee

HILLSONG

Please worship  HERE 

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our gracious and loving Father in heaven

We thank you for this day and for every new blessing that you have given along with it.

We thank you for the natural differences in personality and temperament you bless your people with. We are all unique, all different, all equally loved. 

We recognise that our dispositions need challenging. Some of us are too disenchanted and laid back, while some of us are over triumphalistic. We thank you for the example of our Saviour and his Spirit which breathes through our psalm.

If we are in exile, restore our fortunes. If we have been delivered, fill our mouths with joy.

We ask these things in the worthy Name of Jesus, man of sorrows, aquainted with grief,

Amen.

Photo by Chitto Cancio on Unsplash