Devotional Reading Plan

DAY TWO | JOY IN THE MORNING

Part II

Scripture: Roman 8:17-21

Giving in to your feelings

Is like drowning in the shallows

Oh, you got to keep believing

Even in the middle of the unknown

What we understand about the character of God matters so much because it informs and frames how we think about everything else. If we see Jesus as a powerful but far-away God, we may not believe He really even cares about us. On the other hand, if we see Jesus only as a kind, wise man, we may believe that He came merely to help us, not to save us. Seeing a God that exists within our reality and beyond it awakens us to the notion that there is a reality that we exist in and still one beyond it. Serious students of the Bible call this the temporal and the eternal. That just means that there’s a now and there’s a forever.

Many people today start with the now and use it to frame forever. Faith in Jesus gives us the ability to flip that perspective and start with what we know about forever to help us define and process what we’re experiencing now. If we only focus on our devastating pain, loss, or failure, we’ll believe that pain, loss, and failure will last forever. We will relegate our lives to the calloused belief that there is nothing more to hope for beyond those moments where the bottom fell out. But if there is an eternity in which endless joy, permanent peace, and overwhelming love flow from the goodness of the glory of God, we can maintain a deep abiding hope that anchors us when the tides of unexpected difficulties rise.

Paul made this shift in perspective. He had what he referred to as a “thorn in the flesh.” Scholars have debated what he was referring to, and although we don’t know the specifics, surely we can all relate to having something in our lives that causes us to ache, a wound that we live with, something that keeps us up at night and is the first thing on our mind in the morning. I know I’ve had mine. In Scripture, we see Paul pray and plead with God to remove the thorn in his flesh, but God doesn’t do it. Then Paul makes a statement that changes everything—for him and for us. Paul says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed.” What he is pointing us toward is the fact that there is a horizon called eternity, a reality beyond our experience that gives us hope. Even in our suffering, we know that our suffering has an expiration date! Weeping may indeed endure for a night or what seems like thousands of nights, but there is a joy that comes in the morning with a sun that shines so bright that darkness ceases to exist.

It’s my prayer that this ultimate reality frames your present reality. We know that if our faith has been securely placed in Jesus, there is a dawn coming. We will step across the threshold of time and space into eternity and only experience the glory of God! That is ultimate hope. That’s a truth to build a life upon. It doesn’t answer all our questions or satisfy all our doubts, but it does give us the promise of God’s presence here with us in the midst of them and beyond them.

Cause it ain’t even faith

’Till your plan falls apart

But you still choose to follow