Your children never choose to be difficult at convenient times… not that there is ever really and truly a convenient time for emotional meltdowns, but at our house, they seem to always happen in the morning, 5 minutes before we are to head out the door for school. It’s like two world are now colliding, because I apparently need to take the moment to parent my child, but we also need to hurry up and get out the door so we can get to school on time.
One morning particular morning, the meltdown began and I all I could do is stop and quickly pray, “Oh, no Lord! Please, not again!” Of course, getting into the car is a huge ordeal in moments like these, and after we finally make it into the car, I am finding myself full of frustration, stress, and discouragement. But God is always so good to provide what we need in moments like this, and as soon as I started the car, the first thing I heard on the radio was, “God is refining you through the fire!” Wow!
I have no doubt that God had me hear those words in that exact moment for a reason! I wanted immediate, improved behavior from my child to escape frustration and inconvenience, but God wanted much more than that- He wanted to refine me and my child in order to provide an opportune moment to allow for God to prune us and produce more fruit in our lives. I was far from happy that morning, but even still, God wanted to remind me, I could still bear the fruit of joy.
The biblical definition of joy is a feeling of good pleasure and happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who or what is happening around us. Joy comes from the Holy Spirit, abiding in God’s presence, and from hope in His word. Because this is an emotion free from circumstance and is a fruit of the spirit gifted to us by God, it makes sense why we are able to experience His joy even during unhappy or miserable parts of our day or seasons of life.
In Galatians 5:22, joy is listed as a fruit of the spirit, and in John 15:8 Jesus says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” And later in John 15:11 Jesus goes on to say, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
“God intends the Christian life to be a life of joy- not drudgery.”
Jerry Bridges- The Pursuit of Holiness
What a comforting truth, that God, our Heavenly Father, desires for us to bear the fruit of joy in our lives. Despite hard and heavy circumstances we face in this life, God desires for us to experience a continued, unwavering good pleasure in Him. As I continue to see how our days here in this life seem to grow with rapid uncertainty, this is a truth my heart desperately needs to cling to!
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” Psalm 51:12
Highlighting the hope that we have in Christ! 