Momentary Tears and Eternal Joy (Psalm 126:5)

Psalm 126:5

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.”

Not too long ago I wrote this prayer in a journal that I keep by my bedside. I will admit that it was one of the most desparate prayers that I have ever put down on paper. “I feel so defeated. I am not sure where God is taking me right now. How long O Lord will I continue to feel like this? I feel like I have no hope left to lose. It’s not that I am desiring happiness, I just want to feel like I have a purpose. I know God’s timing is perfect and one day I will see the purpose to this trial. My prayer is that I will see it sooner rather than later. O Lord I am desperate for the crumbs that fall from your table. I have to go back to teach tomorrow and I feel like I can barely lift my head up. Help me to see Your goodness. I need you to help me go even one step further.” How often do we feel like this? How easy is it to lose sight of God’s eternal plan in the midst of our temporary trials? How easy is it to look at our temporary trials and fail to see how God is using the temporary to prepare us for something that is eternal? Psalm 126:5 has been my rock for the last several months. This verse is further evidence that God is working all things for the good of those that love Him. Right now, we might be sowing in tears, but one day we shall reap with shouts of joy. God will overrule evil with good and overrule suffering with mercy and blessing beyond compare. One day we will shout for joy again. Remember the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Until we look to Christ as our continuous source of rescue and our ultimate fountain of joy, we will struggle to find the pains of this life as light and momentary afflictions. My promise to you, on the authority of God’s Word, is that one day we will see these afflictions as light and momentary. There will come a time when we will never have to think of them again. Our lives right now are just a drop of water in a universe filled with oceans. Don’t let one drop of water get in the way of seeing the overflowing waters of God’s goodness and mercy. You were made to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
 
-Brady

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