[ Previous Page ]     [ Next Page ]        Page:

I Peter 1:6-8  "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:   Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"  Again, this Scripture reminds us to face our hardships with rejoicing.  

There's a subtle difference between joy and rejoicing.  Joy comes from the inside out as we focus on the truth.  Rejoicing is a choice of the will.  Music is a particularly powerful tool to help us make this choice to rejoice.  I strongly recommend collecting a variety of cassettes, CDs or videos with uplifting music, especially music that you can sing along with.  Psalms says to make a joyful noise in praise to God -- and God doesn't limit that to the quality of your singing voice!  When you are feeling down, make the conscious choice to listen to uplifting music or just lift your voice to God in praise without the aid of other music.  Did you know there are nine references in Scripture to singing a new song to the Lord?  (Ps. 33:3, Ps. 40:3, Ps. 96:1, Ps. 98:1, Ps. 144:9, Ps. 149:1, Is. 42:10, Rev. 5:9, Rev. 14:3)  You don't have to sing a song that someone has written down somewhere.  Just sing out your praises to God -- who cares whether it’s a masterpiece of musical composition and poetic perfection?  It will be beautiful to God because He loves your voice, which is a part of the way He made you.

These verses in I Peter 1:6-8 also include another telling phrase -- the trial of our faith is much more precious than gold.  Do we see our trials that way?  I know I have often not seen my hardships from that perspective.  But the Word says my trials are much more precious than gold -- precious.  Jesus is precious, my children are precious, I have some friends who are precious -- are my trials precious?  As I have walked in the truth of these Scriptures, I have come to see my trials as precious.  God has given me a treasure in the hardship of my circumstances that I wouldn't trade for anything.  I wouldn't want to go back to the beginning and start over, but I wouldn't trade what God has given me either.  I know God in ways that are truly precious to me.

When I was in college, my voice instructor was also a very skilled pianist.  He said that people would often say to him, "Oh, I wish I could play the piano like that."  Sometimes his response was, "No, you don't.  Most people are unwilling to make the sacrifice necessary to play the piano like this.  It takes many years of several hours of daily practice to learn, and then hours of daily practice to maintain."  That is so true!  Many people are unwilling to walk a hard path with God but that hard path is where we learn to see God in deeper ways.  I treasure every nugget of truth that God has revealed about Himself through the dark painful days of my life.

II Cor. 1:3-5  "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.  For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ."  The only way to truly know God as Comforter is to need and then walk in His comfort.  His comfort is not theoretical, it is literal. 

[ Previous Page ]     [ Next Page ]        Page:

This page has been displayed 1 times this month, 23 times since October 12, 2008 .