Suffering, Joy, and Fight
The past few weeks I have been fascinated with the book of Joel. It’s only 3 chapters long but it’s such a powerful story of loss and redemption and fight.
So if you’ve never read it, or you’ve read it a million times, read it again with new eyes today and see what the Lord has to offer you.
Chapter 1 goes into depth about the suffering of a deadly plague. A plague that stripped the lands of their crops and left the people to mourn.
Joel 1:12 says, “Surely the peoples joy is withered away.”
Sound familiar to a time we might be going through right now? Our time may not be a plague of locusts, but it is a plague of disease that has left our world in mourning all the same.
Chapter 2 is where we get our joy back.
Joel 2:3 says, “Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste - nothing escapes them.”
Knowing we might be stranded in the desert now, but that streams of living water are right around the corner is the most comforting hope we can stand in today.
Joel 2:25 says, “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.”
This year of real loss, of struggle, of pain, of missing out on the fullness of life, all this time wasted in worry will be restored to us in full. Whether that is in a few months or a few years or once we get to heaven, he has promised us that it will be restored.
Chapter 3 is all about the fight. The come back. It talks all about the Lord’s army and how now it is time to fight in His name.
Joel 3:10 “Let the weakling say, I am strong!”
It is time for us to regain strength so that we can be a part of the fight that is coming.
For me I am still in chapter 1. I am in the suffering and feeling the weight of life most days, but I can see the hope chapter 2 brings that will soon strengthen me enough to get to chapter 3 so that I am ready for war again.
Regardless of what chapter you feel like you reside in right now, the Lord is with you and he is helping you along through each chapter. Of course, the Lord wants us in battle with Him, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t understanding when it comes to our times of suffering.