JOYFUL

2 Corinthians 4: 8 – 18

Ps 30: 5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Don't you just love that verse? It gives us hope that whatever is plaguing us is short lived compared to the joy we will experience in eternity.
The first time I saw the above verse was in a meeting room in a rehab. They used it there as an example of living one day at a time. How short sighted was that? Yet I fell for it as I didn't know the Lord in those days.
Now we are not talking about Psalm 30, we are dealing with what Paul said in 2 Corinthians. What is made very clear is that Paul's writing says the same thing as the Psalm, I guess that's because Paul didn't have the New Testament to preach from, after all it was he who wrote the letters to Corinth.

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

Just like in that rehab, Paul shows us that although we are down, but not out, beaten and bloody, but not dead yet. It seems that wherever we look, there are things ready to pounce on us with out warning.
Yet Paul reminds us that all these things are temporary in the face of eternity.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

I know in my life that there are times when I just want to lay down and cry. The pain and discomfort become too much, all my worries seem to overwhelm me, and I want to cry out, to complain, to cry foul, and feel sorry for myself.
I forget the teaching of the Bible as I am sure that many others do as well. For now, those of us who weep can dwell on hope instead of hopelessness and anticipation instead of sorrow. It may be nighttime in our hearts, but just ahead lies the dawn of eternity. And with it, God promises the endless joy of heavenly morning.