Joy Comes in the Morning- Living Through the Pain of Circumstances.

In my worship time I was listening (and singing loudly) “Yes Lord” with Israel and New Breed and Israel said something on the recording that rang in me like a bell: it rang so strongly that it prompted me to open the word and to begin to study it out. 

He said “Joy comes in the morning. That is not necessarily ‘morning’ with an a.m. beside it: that is morning- as in when you WAKE UP!”

As one of my friends is fond of saying: “Recognize!”

God wants to do something in our lives. As Matthew 9: 28-30 shows it must be “according to our faith”. Psalms 30:5 says "For his anger endures but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." 

You Are Thinking "You have no idea what is going on with me!"

So things are hard sometimes, maybe even ridiculously hard, but we can have JOY no matter what. We just have to look at Job to see that this is possible. Job lost his family, all of his kids, and their kids. He lost his livestock, his land, and his health. You know that saying, “at least you have your health”, well; Job could not even say that. His circumstances were so bad, his wife and friends had a running commentary on how he should handle his problems, what he should do to “fix” things, and through it all, Job trusted in God, and never denied God’s power to save him and keep him no matter what! (Have you been through a really hard spot and had all your friends have “advise” for you? Be careful. Our counselor is Jesus. We should always seek Him first.)

Let’s look closer at Job 22:25-30 (The Message)

21-25 "Give in to God, come to terms with him and everything will turn out just fine. Let him tell you what to do; take his words to heart. Come back to God Almighty and he'll rebuild your life. Clean house of everything evil. Relax your grip on your money and abandon your gold-plated luxury. God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine. 
26-30 “You'll take delight in God, the Mighty One, and look to him joyfully, boldly. You'll pray to him and he'll listen; he'll help you do what you've promised. You'll decide what you want and it will happen; your life will be bathed in light. To those who feel low you'll say, 'Chin up! Be brave!' and God will save them. Yes, even the guilty will escape, escape through God's grace in your life."

Several other scriptures run through my mind at this point. “All things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose”. God’s grace is sufficient”. “Whom the Son set free is free indeed!” These are so important, because they establish the veracity of God’s word as it applies to our circumstances. When I looked at Job in the King James and took a close look at what was being said in the actual meanings of the words in Job 22: 25-30 I discovered some things I want to share with you. I believe these things are what we must do in order to have Joy, no matter what our circumstances are.

What is in a word? 

First, “Acquaint” (Strong’s 05532) means to be of use, service, profit, benefit, to be used, to know intimately. We should come to terms with who God is, and what He wants us to do in service to Him. When we become intimate with God, hearing His voice in our life is a regular occurrence. So even in the dark, when we cannot see the direction to go, we can follow God’s voice as He sings over us.

Secondly, we need to “Receive” (Strong’s 03947). This means to take, lay ahold of, seize, acquire, get, and choose. We need to take what He says to heart. Choose to believe Him over our circumstances. To acquire His promises, and to lay a hold of HIS TRUTH! Circumstances lie. Circumstances change. God is not a man, that HE can lie; and He cannot change!

This is why we should “lay-up” and score really big with God. “Lay up” (Strong’s 07760) means make, ordain, fix in place, establish, and DETERMINE! 

We should determine that no matter what is going on God is the ultimate authority on what is going on in our lives and on what we should do about it. 

We should “clean house” and not put anything ahead of God in our lives. He is our first love. He is our Father, our Savior, and our Lord. Nothing is higher, and nothing should be exalted above Him.

His “words” (Strong’s 0561) are our promises and His vow to us. It comes from the Hebrew word ‘rmh’ and it means to say in one’s heart. Say in our heart that HE is God. He is our comfort, our shield, our buckler, our strength, our hope. He raises a hedge of protection around us; He raises a standard against the flood and the fire. He forgives us, accepts us, loves us, and wants us. He has established us as the head and not the tail.

If we have waivered, and we have put idols in His place, tear them down and return to Him. Then He will be our “defense”: (Strong’s 01220 from 01219) a fence, an inaccessible fortification. Then we can “delight” (Strong’s 06026) in the Lord. We can be pampered by His love and favor, and take extreme exquisite pleasure in God. Then we can pray in the darkness and He will hear us. Then we can decree with authority what God says about our circumstances and IT SHALL BE ESTABLISHED! (Strong’s 06965) Established means to be confirmed, to build, to raise. Establish means to fix in the natural what you have determined in your heart and spoken with your mouth to be. AND THEN the “light shall shine upon your way”. (Strong’s 0216) The light of day – MORNING- the light of instruction, the light of life, the light of prosperity, the light of God’s face shall shine on your “Ways”: (Strong’s 01870) your road, journey, path, direction. 

Stay with me! 

Now, I know this is long, but bear with me because the best is yet to come. Out of all of this, we grow and from that growth we develop the desire to point others to salvation. The word “save” (Strong’s 03467) is Yasha’ in Hebrew. (Sounds almost like Yeshewa [Jesus] doesn’t it) It means to be saved, to be delivered out of darkness into day, to be victorious!

So joy really does come in the morning. Jesus is our bright and morning star! So arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord is around about you. Rise and shake off your mourning, for MORNING is COME! Yes Lord, and again I say YES!

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember that JOY is a noun.

What is your favorite Scripture verse right now?