5.25-How can we keep our joy in a world of suffering?

5.25-
My parents experienced the explosions that destroyed a comfortable life for them. My dad lost his dad when he was twelve. My mother had come from a family that had some smart, hard working people, a cousin who was a doctor, her grandfather was a bank stock holder and director. Then the depression and the bank went broke and the stock holders lost all their money. Mother’s family had hard financial loss and also lost a child in death who was her little brother. Mother and dad experienced spiritual explosions when family set backs happened in the community. They were well acquainted with sorrow and grief from an early age. But they kept the idea that life was a banquet of joy if you kept your faith in Jesus Christ.

I am sad for our world this morning to see the death of 22 people in London who were out doing something joyful with their family and friends. My family enjoys sporting events together as a part of our joyful experiences. Crowds gather in places of freedom and joy, but death and suffering can come into those places.

Jesus knew about this world as a place where people kill babies and godly men are beheaded. He kept the idea that life was a banquet of joy because His faith was in his heavenly Father.
I pray that we who follow Jesus will keep our courage and do the things we can to build up our families. It requires doing what we fear which is the definition of courage. We must keep going to God for grace and mercy and then moving forward out of our comfort zones into making a positive impact on our world to make it a better place.

There is joy which comes in the morning. God gives songs in the night. Paul was in a terrible prison for helping a woman to be free and the prison and the mistreatment did not take away His joy in God. He was singing hymns of praise to God in prison. He said that the hard times that he went through actually made others willing to keep on going in faith when they saw his courage.

The beginning with Jesus is to deny ourselves and follow Him and we get a joy that this world can never take away. I have lived that banquet of joy with my parents and in laws and in our own fifty years of marriage. It is because of the grace and mercy of God and the belief that beyond the sorrow is the joy of freedom with God.

Luke 9.
²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? ²⁶ Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.