Joy Deepens our Faith

“Take your child straight to the children’s hospital, Bethany. He is dangerously sick.” Those words radically altered life for our family. In a moment, a pediatric visit for a rash became a six month journey through a blood disorder that perplexed the doctors. Our 6 year old was very ill with a rare blood disease, and he wasn’t responding to the treatments. Weekly and sometimes twice a week visits for blood draws and infusions stressed him out. One of those weeks on the drive to the hospital, I was deep in thought, grieving and begging God for this to be healed. 

From the backseat came his little voice, “Momma, do you know what I know?” I looked back as he was gazing out the window at passing scenes, “No buddy, what do you know?” 

“I know that Jesus really loves me because every time we have to go to the hospital, He plays my favorite song on the radio. And then I’m not as scared.” And in that moment, God allowed me to see His hand working. In these painful uncertain visits, my son had been experiencing God in ways I wasn’t seeing. Songs were bolstering his faith, truths in the lyrics to a specific song became his anthem cry, and he was joyful despite his fears and longings to be healthy. He had seen God’s grace for himself, and at the age of 6, he was changed. 

What I began to learn in that season was the beautiful “golden chain” as Spurgeon calls joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. When we look across all of Scripture, we see the same pattern emerge. Rejoicing accompanies prayer and results in thanksgiving. Throughout scripture you hear this trio play a perfect melody with one another. When my soul is tuned in prayer to Him, my ability to trust His way increases exponentially, my heart rests more, my will submits easier. I can be thankful because I’m trusting Him rather than figuring out the way. Prayer redirects my heart to His peace. Thanksgiving and rejoicing result, even in hard times. 

Often joy is just the one blossom - A glimmer of His love, His grace seen in the pain, the waiting, the walking. The rocky soil from which one bloom emerges suddenly turns to lush black dirt holding fields of flowers. The glimpse of His grace emboldens our hearts before His throne, prayers unceasing, thanksgivings arise. 

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes thought it is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ~ 1 Peter 1:6-8

Faith begins to grow. As roots sink deeper into the richness of His steadfast love, our eyes seek out the Author and Finisher of our faith. We understand His steady presence, unfaltering love that sacrificed all, and the tap root of our faith deepens. When the center core of who we are anchors in who He is, then the external leaves and blossoms that sometimes suffer breakage and damage are replaced over time with new growth, new fruit. My son experienced this anchoring through the rich truths in song because God was faithfully pursuing him. 

When joy centers on circumstances, taproots fail to grow. Faith is easily uprooted, crowded out by weeds, or plucked. But when you and I anchor in the gospel, when we abide and cling tightly to His sacrifice and His steadfast love, daily moments, struggles and sufferings become places where joy surges forth, yielding the blossoms of growth, life, and abundance. The golden chain of rejoicing, praying and thanksgiving once again playing its song.

Photo Credit: Clement Falize @centelm