A Word in Season: Joy in the Morning (Psalm 30:5)

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Every Christian life has seasons of struggling and suffering, but if we know our own hearts, and if we know the nature of sin, then we understand that the suffering that we undergo is far, far less than we actually deserve.

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God has spared his people the hell that sin deserves. He has put away our sin through the sacrifice of his

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Son. We need to acknowledge, though, that even forgiven sin has consequences, and that the sins that we go on committing against God are no less sin because they are against our

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Heavenly Father. And it's therefore right that we should understand that our ongoing sins need

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God to deal with us as a Father, to chastise us because of our transgressions, lest we should go on in them and dishonour him, and do damage to our own lives and testimonies.

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And so it is that the Lord does not simply ignore or overlook sin, he deals with it because it is a grief to him.

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And the sin that grieves God ought to be a grief to us. And one of the ways that God teaches us that is by bringing those consequences of sin close to home.

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And so, for example, in a psalm like the 30th, you have someone who is under the chastisement of God, is receiving a paternal punishment, but who cries out to the

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Lord and finds healing, who is brought up from the grave and kept alive. And in verse 5 he testifies that God's anger is but for a moment, his favour is for life.

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Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. We have a

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God who is slow to anger, but abounding in mercy. God's frowns come slowly and pass quickly, his mercy comes quickly and lasts forever.

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And so his anger is but for a moment, his favour is for life, or perhaps even is life itself.

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The smile of God is the sweetest and most important thing that any of us could ever enjoy.

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And so it's good for us to remember, especially at times when there are struggles and sufferings, that these things are

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God's gracious imposition, that they last for a little while, and that they may bring weeping, but that weeping endures for a night.

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It is a passing thing. The grief that we feel, the distress that we feel, the sorrow that we feel, these are

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God's instruments to teach us and to train us, to form Christ in us.

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They will last no longer than they need, and they will pass quickly and the sun will dawn upon us.

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Joy comes in the morning. And so my Christian brother or sister, if there is something that is in your life that causes you to weep, then we should be patient under the rod of God.

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We should wait for him to remove it. We should plead for him to take it away when the task is done.

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We should do all that we can to learn the lessons that we need to learn swiftly and securely.

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And we need to trust in the fact that the God with whom we have to do is a God who is full of mercy and grace.

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He does not afflict willingly. God is not capricious. He's not cruel in any respect.

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There's nothing arbitrary in the way that he deals with his children. Even his frowns are the frowns of a loving father.

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Even his strokes are the mercies of his righteous heart. And so we need to remember the character of God in those times when sin has brought suffering upon us.

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We need to be thankful that it is not the suffering that we deserve. We need to be patient. We need to be humble.

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We need to avoid all bitterness and resentment. And we need to remember that though weeping may endure for a night, yet joy comes in the morning.

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And the joy that the believer has is no passing joy. Yes, God's favor is life.

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And the only way that we can really balance out those two things, the only way that we can properly comprehend just how much favor swallows up anger, just how much joy swallows up weeping, is to remember that not only in this life are there joys that cannot be calculated, but every believer has an eternal bliss to which we are looking forward, a heaven in which there will be no more frowns, for none will be needed, but only smiles and joy in that true and enduring day of life.