Finding joy in the darkness

A gardener took great pride in caring for his lawn. But one year it grew full of dandelions. He tried every method and product to get rid of them, but nothing worked. Exasperated, he wrote the Department of Agriculture explaining all he had done. “What shall I try next?” he wrote. “Try getting used to them,” came the reply.

Unfortunately, the same can be said of trials and tribulations in this life. They are here to stay and we need to not only get used to them, but learn how to find joy in them.

The book of 1 Peter was written to a group of new believers in Jesus Christ on just how to find joy in the midst of their dark circumstances. Those dark circumstances included the withdrawal of relationships by family and friends, loss of career, physical abuse, imprisonment, and even death. All that because they chose to follow the Lord Jesus.

If you have ever, or are currently, going through a dark time the book of 1 Peter gives some great pieces of encouragement that may be just what you need. Some of those great pieces of encouragement include God being intimately involved in your life (1 Peter 1:2), the reminder that we have a living hope (1 Peter 1:3-5), that our trials have a divine purpose (1 Peter 1:6-9), and that we are going through these trials at this exact point in time for a reason (1 Peter 1:10-12).

While these nuggets of truth from the Word of God may not solve all your problems, I pray they bring you some encouragement as you grab hold of the reality that our great God not only cares about what we are going through but walks through it with us. This he ultimately proved by coming to the earth he created to be with those that he created in the person of Jesus Christ.

This article was written on behalf of the Moses Lake Christian Ministerial Association.