Monday, May 12, 2014

Can Joy Emerge Out of the Seedbed of Anxiety?

“When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought me joy.”
— Psalm 94:19
GOD is responsible for the creation of the world and we can wonder how a good God could allow his creation to be so distorted by sin. Yet, that is love: to allow free will to reign beneath his reign. But the plan of the enemy of God to ruin humankind forever was thwarted, because God knew we would run astray. God sent a part of himself – without ever dividing himself – to our stead, in our defence, though we crucified the one who was, from the beginning, intended to save us. We each denied God which was proof that we needed a Saviour.
To this sort of God, joy out of anxiety is possible.
To this sort of God, truly anything is possible, whether we can conceive its possibility or not.
But we always want to know how this can happen. Unfortunately, in life not all things can be explained as if to be tied-off and neatly packaged. We believe by faith and miracles occur. The one who came to save us; we believe upon his name and he shows us things – by our belief in his power – that we never knew before.
Joy can emerge from anxiety, but in many different ways and in many different forms. What works for one is useless to another, because the resolution requires faith. There are no quick fixes unless God wills it so.
Now here is the reason for faith: the witness that stands before us.
The witness is either testifying truthfully or he or she is lying; but why would they bother lying about such a joy out of inexplicable possession of fear?
Why would someone lie about 1) something that didn’t occur to them, and 2) give God the credit.
It makes no sense that a good person – one who is reliable in every regard – would go out of their way to espouse God’s power if there were no power. Why would an honest person – a person of good integrity – lie?
Of course, we would all like to believe in miracles if at least they would improve our lot. Miracles still occur, and especially in the realm of our mental, emotional and spiritual beings.
***
There are many good witnesses to the miracles of God’s transformation in us. We are living testimonies and when someone can see how we have turned anxiety into joy only God can be credited. And that, to us, is joy!
God’s consolation in our gravest need is shrouded in the sanctity of the humblest belief.
© 2014 S. J. Wickham.

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