Just writing the title of this article seems like an oxymoron. How can a tribulation, trial, or bad life circumstances be something to bring joy. First one needs to realize that joy does not mean happiness. Just to look it up online one can read that according to the Bible, “Joy is a lasting emotion and an enduring attitude of the heart and spirit that is rooted in communion with Christ and the soul’s peace.” It is more than and different from what some call happiness. True joy is a “fruit of the Spirit” which means without trusting and believing in the Spirit there can be no receiving in that which you don’t believe in.
However, when a person chooses to trust in God who they choose to believe in, joy can be a lasting emotion that simply comes from trusting in the promises found in the Bible. Jesus explained in John 15 about abiding in the vine. This means to continue staying connected to God through the good times and the bad. Often it is bad times that lead people to God, but when things start going well again people choose to forsake the way.
The parable of the soils is very evident that people can choose to stray away from the good news of the Gospel of Christ they hear about. Some hear and it starts to take root but the troubles of life (bad times come) or the pleasures of life distract (good times) cause the person to turn back and go the way that leads away from true joy.
Though none typically would volunteer for hard times when they do come as they will to all at some point we can learn from the experiences we have to endure. Jesus’ half brother, James writes about it in James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
We need to understand that being “perfect” doesn’t mean one who is without fault, but perfection means one who is mature and growing. This is how abiding in the vine causes us to grow and mature in our faith, able to produce the fruits (attitudes, actions) that are evidence of the faith we have.
It means that when life happens and our human reactions want to scream or react in negative ways we allow the Spirit of God to produce joy within us to give us patience (the ability to wait without becoming angry), in order to ride out the bad times. In that way it doesn’t seem as much of a contradiction to have joyful tribulations.
~TRS 8-18-24
Rays of Hope 