Bite-Sized: One Quote

Reading this resonated with me. Phillips Brooks had a great point that we should all internalize.

Never pray for an easier life - pray to be a stronger person! Never pray for tasks equal to your power - pray for power equal to your tasks. Then doing your work will be no miracle - you will be the miracle. 

According to Scripture, we as Christians are guaranteed to encounter persecution, adversity, and other unpleasant experiences. As Brooks suggests , the right course of action isn't to run from it. God doesn't promise us a life without pain and discomfort. As a matter of fact, He pretty much says the opposite. But He does promise us joy and Paul encourages us to be joyful. Why?

"We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5) 

Ultimately our joy is found in neither our circumstances nor in some false assurance that Christ will remove our circumstances from us. Instead, our joy should be based in the security of our soul through the promises of Christ and the assurance that He will continue to sustain us and strengthen us as we travel through the storms of life. And even more than that, our joy comes when we worship Him. Why? Because "He loved us in such a way that He gave his only begotten son, so that everyone believing in him might not perish but might instead have eternal life" (John 3:16, my translation). This verse isn't about "how much" God loves us. This is a verse about the specific way that the Father expressed his love for us and Jesus iterates it as a specific course of expressing love: laying down your life for your brothers and sisters. In other words, pour yourself out for others. It's what Jesus did. It's who Jesus was (Philippians 2:5-11). It's who He called us to be. It may not be "fun" at all points of the journey, but it will surely, surely, surely, surely be worth it. I mean...Jesus said so when He said "I have said all these things to you so that my joy might be in you and so that your joy might be full" (John 15:11, my translation). Jesus's joy was found in his relationship with the Father. Only through Him can we take hold of that same joy. And it will be full.