PSALM 116:1-4 – I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

THEME OF THE DAY: IT ISN’T ALWAYS “HAPPY IN JESUS.”   We need to be honest.  First, with ourselves and then with those we share Christ with hoping it will lead to their salvation.  The area of honesty?  The painful realities of the Christian life.  It is supposed to be hard.  It is supposed to include much pain and suffering.  Jesus told us it would be so – I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 16:33). The Apostle Paul also told the young believers in Asia Minor the Christian life is no “cake walk” just coasting into heaven – When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:21-22).

The Psalmist in today’s scripture is not “happy in Jesus all the day long” – I suffered distress and anguish.  And let us not forget the Lord Jesus and the pain He endured especially in the Garden of Gethsemane – Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:36-38) and And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:39-44).  We cannot expect a trouble-free life this side of heaven.  And here is the challenge.  We know that truth.  We are aware the Christian life is hard. Yet, we find ourselves easily complaining during trials, difficulties, and the pain of living in a cursed world.  What does that say about us? It says we have a faulty view of the Christian life manifested in two ways.

First, a faulty view of the Christian life reveals we are still spiritually immature for we have yet to take what we say we believe and have that truth shape our thinking and thus direct our responses in hard times. Truth known but not applied will not transform us..

Another thing a faulty view of the Christian life says about us is we are failing to see that suffering and hard times are God’s choice means of doing deep and good spiritual transformation in our lives.  In the second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul opens his letter not happy in Jesus but despairing of life itself, but pay attention to the lessons he learned and was learning because of his suffering – For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

Yes, we are not always happy in Jesus.  Someday we will be, but till that day, we may endure the difficulties of the Christian life because He who is the Christian life is with us, even in times of unhappiness.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me for the too many times I complain in my life as if life is supposed to be trouble-free.”

QUOTE: “Life is hard. Sin made it so. Don’t seek from this world what is only in the next – rest, comfort, and happiness.”