Count It All Joy
Count It All Joy
Over the last few months, I have continued to hear the words “count it all joy” at different points. A dear friend told me once that if you continue to hear the same thing over and over- get still and listen because God could be showing you something.
This scripture, while beautifully written, is one of the hardest to say when we are going through all the different pains of life. It often seems like, in these moments, that the ‘charlie brown rain cloud’ shows up and begins to storm like never before. And even though we desperately want the clouds to part and the sun to come out, these are the times when we need to buckle down and take refuge…because this storm isn’t moving out anytime soon.
So how do we count it all joy? How do we find peace in some of the hardest points in life? How do we settle our souls?
I believe we will find these answers when we begin to look at the warriors of our past. The people of scripture that walked through hell and back and counted it all joy! I can’t help but think of the man who wrote this beautiful phrase and suffered so much while praising God- Paul. He was in prison. He was persecuted in so many ways. He suffered greatly but he STILL CHOSE JOY!
Oh dear friend, maybe you are in this moment…struggling to raise your head above water and just take one breath. I encourage you to not lose hope. The storm may not be ending soon and you may be here for a bit but God has promised that He will provide. Paul reminds us, through his personal experiences of hardship, that we need our Father. We need brothers & sisters in Christ. We need the prayers of the believers to be lifted up on our behalf. And we must place our hope in God because He will yet deliver us! And even if it doesn’t look like what WE wanted, we can choose to say “I count it all joy” because we trust His process.
“...but in God who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, if you also join in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons in our behalf for the favor granted to us through the prayers of many.” - 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
This scripture, while beautifully written, is one of the hardest to say when we are going through all the different pains of life. It often seems like, in these moments, that the ‘charlie brown rain cloud’ shows up and begins to storm like never before. And even though we desperately want the clouds to part and the sun to come out, these are the times when we need to buckle down and take refuge…because this storm isn’t moving out anytime soon.
So how do we count it all joy? How do we find peace in some of the hardest points in life? How do we settle our souls?
I believe we will find these answers when we begin to look at the warriors of our past. The people of scripture that walked through hell and back and counted it all joy! I can’t help but think of the man who wrote this beautiful phrase and suffered so much while praising God- Paul. He was in prison. He was persecuted in so many ways. He suffered greatly but he STILL CHOSE JOY!
Oh dear friend, maybe you are in this moment…struggling to raise your head above water and just take one breath. I encourage you to not lose hope. The storm may not be ending soon and you may be here for a bit but God has promised that He will provide. Paul reminds us, through his personal experiences of hardship, that we need our Father. We need brothers & sisters in Christ. We need the prayers of the believers to be lifted up on our behalf. And we must place our hope in God because He will yet deliver us! And even if it doesn’t look like what WE wanted, we can choose to say “I count it all joy” because we trust His process.
“...but in God who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, if you also join in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons in our behalf for the favor granted to us through the prayers of many.” - 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
Recent
Archive
2025
April
2023
February
2022
December
No Comments