December 30, 2010

• year end reflections, # 1: "end of the year ... in the midst of heartache" | Letter 97 on joy

  The past few years I've been blogging, I've published blogs about the broken heart and heartache at the end of the year. (Please see here and here.) I've had my share of broken hearts and heartaches (e.g. - see here and here). We all have. After all, we all live in a fallen world. It is an unlovely world. However – for the believer in Christ, we can KNOW without a doubt, that our God has ordained and intended each and every broken heart and each and every heartache for our good and for the furtherance of His Gospel, for His greatest glory and so Jesus Christ may be made preeminent. Until we come to see God as sovereign over any and all things, to see Him as sovereign over even those deepest hurts, trials and pains, sovereign over not only the good things but also the bad things, we will never be able to rejoice in Him – and we can never say we truly know Him and we can never truly worship Him as we ought. Our God is worthy of highest praise and our greatest rejoicing at all times, regardless of our circumstances!

  So today and tomorrow, knowing that God may very well lay aside my plans (for I have often seen and know that when I propose, He often disposes!), I hope to repost a couple blogs I originally posted at the end of the last few years.

  Why am I doing this? I do this only because I continue to see God's children continue to struggle with accepting and embracing and rejoicing in God's goodness coming to us at all times, including in and through heartache and heartbreak. No matter where we go, our God is in the midst! Has the current of His overflowing love, mercies and grace all stopped because of your current circumstances? Can God's desire to bless His own be thwarted by heartache and heartbreak?

  I recently wrote about my own personal experience in a trying situation here. I know that trials, whatever form they might take, are often grievous at the time but they are always for our profit and are always working an eternal weight of glory and they are always if need be (see Hebrews 12, II Corinthians 4, I Peter 1). These truths are written in the Word of God, but God has been graciously (and not without much pain) writing them on my heart in the past few years. To see the glory of God shining in the midst of trial and heartache and heartbreak and to rejoice in the Lord at all times a gift He alone can give. This is my desire for each of you who are Christ's. And to be clear about this: we cannot work up true joy and rejoicing in our own efforts. God alone must rejoice our souls. The joy of the Lord is more than a feeling, though it does include our emotions.

  I am not saying I live a life of 100% joy all the time, far from it, for that is impossible for any of us in this life, but I do know to Whom I must go when my circumstances begin to overwhelm me, when I am weary and heavy laden, when I am about to be consumed by grief and heartache and heartbreak: to Jesus Christ, my exceeding Joy! My prayer is that you would come to know Him as your exceeding Joy as well, and then run with me to His throne of grace where together we are sure to find mercy and grace to help in our time of need, for we will find HIM there waiting for us! Whosoever will may come to Him and drink of Him and be satisfied in Him and joy in Him!

  I am praying God's grace may abound to each of His children in all of our trials, in all our heartaches, in all our heartbreaks, so that our rejoicing in Christ might abound and redound to the glory of God throughout the world. One of the marks of the Christian is joy. And joy not only during good times, but joy during bad times – during those times when our hearts are broken and our heartaches are abounding. The whining and joyless Christian is no testimony at all to a lost world. I know I balked at similar words as I read them years ago, but this is God's truth. We can trust that God's grace will abound to us as we seek His face and as we hold fast to Him, knowing that He is holding onto us and seeking us! May God's grace abound so we might not bring disgrace on Him by wasting our lives whining! The whining life is not only a miserable life, but it is a wasted life!

  If we continue to look at and to dwell on our heartaches and heartbreaks and our circumstances, we will never be radiant, and we will never exude Christ's joy to the world which lies in darkness and gloom! God's desire is that there might be no more gloom for those who are in anguish!

  Will you ask Him to give you that living Water for your dry soul? Will you ask Him to give you springs of water in the desert place?

  The rejoicing heart is a gift God wants to give all His children: to know Him, to know His love that surpasses all understanding, a love that perseveres and keeps us and follows us all the days of our lives – regardless of circumstances. We see the words of David in Psalm 23: SURELY goodness and mercy WILL follow me. There is no doubt at all in his heart or in his mind. SURELY! WILL! David knows the Lord intimately. Do you? David knows God's love will never let him go. He knows His Lord will never leave him or forsake him. Why? Because he knows the Friend who sticks closer than a brother. He knows God as his God, not a God who is far off and aloof and unconcerned, but as his God, as his Shepherd, as his Good Shepherd. Is this the God you know? Have you known God in such an intimate way? Do you know Him as the Bridegroom who seeks His bride and bids her come? Do you know Him? David came to the place where he drank of that living water and so he could say, "I shall not want!" – even in the valley of the shadow of death.

  My prayer is that you might know the breadth and length and depth and height of God's love for you in Jesus Christ in ever-increasing measure so you might be able to sing to the Lord with great joy while on your pilgrimage of pain and suffering and sadness in this fallen world, with all its broken hearts and heartaches.
  
  I write these things to you because I know how much time all of us waste in whining and complaining and grumbling before the Lord. We have lives to live, we have praises to sing. There is a world lost and bound up in sin. May we not continue to be lost and bound up by our heartaches and heartbreaks, but take the Lord Jesus at His word when He said He came to give us life and give us life abundantly, that each one of His brothers and sisters might have fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore - beginning today. Jesus has said, whosoever believeth on Him has life! HAS! What kind of life is the whining life? Brothers and sisters, let us stop playing into the devil's hand, our adversary, who comes to steal, kill and destroy; he does not want us to believe we can have such joy. By God's grace may we take hold of our Savior's hand and then take hold of the promises He has for us, and pray without ceasing, so we might live lives of great joy to the glory and praise of God and for the joy of the nations.

  We've just celebrated Christmas. Most of us have sung Isaac Watts' familiar refrain, "Joy to the world! The Lord has come!" May you be able to sing that that "Joy to the world" has become "Joy to me! The Lord Jesus Christ loved me and has come – to me!" May you be able to proclaim that "the good news of great joy for all the peoples" has become "the good news great of great joy for me! Jesus Christ HAS come to set the captives free! He has come to set me free! This is great joy for me!"

  O, that we would stop being dupes of the devil and stop settling for a lukewarm life of depression, dismay, distress, despair and doubt. Are you weary? Are you thirsty? Will you ask God to give you rest and rejoice your soul this day? Impossible, you say. No, not impossible for the God who loved you and gave His Son to die for you! Will our Father not freely give you all things? Does He not want to give good gifts to His children? Is this gift of joy in Jesus Christ not one of God's greatest gifts He makes available to us? O, downcast souls, ask, seek and knock. And then keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. Consider the bulk of your prayers. You pray for all sorts of things, but is this prayer for joy not one of the most sublime and necessary prayers for the health of your soul? The Lord Jesus Christ is not a hireling. He is our Shepherd. He is our Good Shepherd. Our God desires we know Him and His goodness, grace and glory in overflowing abundance. Our God IS a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! May He give you sufficient grace to thirst and pant for Him and to follow hard after Him and to drink of Him so you might be filled to overflowing with great joy!

  for your joy,
  Karen, 12/30/2010

  ---

  end of the year ... in the midst of heartbreak
  (originally posted 12/31/2009, along with the end notes below)

  end of the year
  in the midst of heartbreak
  children of God
  how long will we be
  foolish, brutish and ignorant
  thankless, futile in our thinking
  shaking our fists, cursing God
  sitting in our ashes, rending our garments,
  seeking bliss, bliss and more bliss
  receiving loss, loss and more loss
  whining, complaining, mourning over our
  broken hearts, pains, bruises, afflictions, sufferings

  

  end of the year
  in the midst of heartbreak
  perhaps we've not gotten what we wanted or expected
  but haven't we already gotten what we needed and far more than we expected
  haven't we already gotten what we didn't deserve, couldn't earn or couldn't ask for
  hasn't the suffering Servant received all that He didn't deserve in our place
  so we might freely receive what we never deserved in the first place
  so we might receive what we couldn't buy or earn
  justification for sins, righteousness for unholiness
  a white wedding garment for our filthy rags
  a place in the heavenlies for the pig sty
  a new soft heart for an old hard heart
  mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace
  the right to be called children of God
  the right to call "Abba, Father!"
  through His blood
  through His cross
  through His life
  grace abounding to
  dead sinners
  powerless
  unworthy
  helpless
  us

  

  end of the year
  in the midst of heartbreak
  have we praised Him
  have we thanked Him
  for His sovereign grace to us

  end of the year
  in the midst of heartbreak
  have we asked Him
  to keep us near the cross
  to keep us near to Him
  in the midst of heartbreak
  and at all times

  (Warning: The video is pretty graphic; it includes scenes from "The Passion of the Christ."
  I don't usually include such things on my blog, but decided we all needed a reality check here.)

  
  Blood on My Hands
  (Todd Agnew)

  Each crack of that whip was for my mistakes
  Blood is on my hands
  Each stumble up that hill was my step to take
  Blood is on my hands
  How do I say thanks for this

  In the cross, In the cross, be my glory ever
  Till my ransomed soul shall find rest beyond the river

  Each tear that flowed was by my sorrow sown
  Blood is on my hands
  Each drop that was spilled, my debt fulfilled
  Blood is on my hands
  How can I say thanks for this

  Jesus keep me near the cross
  There a precious fountain
  Free to all, a healing stream flows
  from Calvary's mountain
  

  ---

  
  

  "Blood on My Hands" by Todd Agnew ©2005 Ardent/Koala Music. Based on the song "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross" lyrics by Francis Jane Crosby. Music by William Howard Doane. Lyrics are subject to US Copyright Laws and are the property of their respective authors, artists and labels. Commercial use prohibited.

  Some personal notes to this post...

  The past couple years on New Year's Eve I've posted "The Often Unwanted but Necessary Gift: The Gift of the Broken Heart." I would encourage you to go and read that post.
  
  I would also encourage you to look through my many posts on God's sovereignty, assurance and fighting for joy, the broken heart, contentment and songs about want *I* want. Know that I have (and continue to) struggle with these things. Many of these posts reflect the struggles I have had to know His joy and assurance in the midst of heartbreak and my examination of Scripture in the process. We so often go wrong in our attitudes toward heartbreaks when we do not first go to Him and His Word and ask His Spirit to teach us from there...Let's never forget that He alone has the words of life – how ridiculous of us to continue to drink stagnant water when we have the living Water available to us!
  
  We all experience and struggle with heartbreak, none of us can escape it in this life, but know that God is with us through each and every broken heart we meet...
  
  May we trust that our Lord will give us sufficient grace to keep us looking to Him and fixing our eyes, our hearts and our minds on Him rather than our broken hearts...
  
  "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." II Corinthians 13:14.
  
  May we grow up and mature in Christ for as we grow in our knowledge and experience of God's grace shown us in Jesus Christ, of our Father's love and of the intimate sweet communion available to us through His Holy Spirit, we will grow in our trust in the Lord in all circumstances. We walk by faith and not by sight, so we do not see all today, but one day we will. But for today and for each of our days that lie ahead, as children of God, we can trust God's strength and grace will be sufficient for each day, for each heartbreak. May He keep us drinking of His living water and abiding in the true Vine, so we might not wither up in the midst of heartbreaks and heartache, but be fruitful and vibrant and be able to say no matter what the circumstances, "It is well with my soul." May God give us grace to trust Him more and to know His abiding and full joy always...even in the midst of our deepest sorrows.

  ~By His grace alone, Karen

  • 3:45 PM
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