JOY COMES IN THE MORNING
I read the devotional “Streams in the Desert” every day (among other things). Sometimes I need to reshare thoughts I wish I had the vocabulary to write myself.
Today the subject was about suffering and “seeming” defeats and setbacks actually being the setup for a greater miracle. (You can’t receive a miracle unless you’re in a situation that needs one).
I love the verbiage in the closing statement. There are thoughts in this worth stopping to ponder:
“Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.”
I can’t get away from the idea that the things we are so afraid of, the things that “break us and shake us,” are the things God uses to release His power in us and through us. Those broken places become the places His victory is able to flow through.
Then the next thing that is profound in the closing thoughts of the devotional is, “When the great oak is straining in the wind, the boughs drink in new beauty, and the trunk sends down a deeper root on the windward side.”
Both of those things are so true.  I often look at trees in a strong wind, and it seems to me as if their branches and leaves are literally praising God.  It is awe-inspiring to see branches that are able to stay connected to the trunk in the middle of the fiercest storm; branches that bend but do not break.
Also, an interesting fact I have heard is that trees that are subjected to adversity are forced to send their roots deeper and therefore have far more stability than trees that have never suffered through storm or drought.
The things the devil sends to break us are actually the things God uses to keep us from breaking!
Today’s devotion out of Streams in the Desert closes with this beautifully haunting thought: “Only the soul that knows the mighty grief can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come to stretch out spaces in our heart for joy.”
Wow! I pray that God will bring those lines to my remembrance when I need them. “Sorrows come to stretch out spaces in our heart for joy!” It reminds me of the verse, “Weeping may last for a night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
