A friend of mine on facebook posted this this morning after posting this verse:
"So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy."
John 16:22
and I immediately felt like I needed to say something about it.
I am of the persuasion that God doesn't interact with us on a day-to-day basis. Don't get me wrong, I believe He hears our prayers and does something about them if it's necessary, but I feel like God is a sort of mama bird who has taught us how to fly, and for the most part, He let's us figure things out on our own. Prayers are a sort of self fulfilling prophecy in a way that we pray for what we want, or feel like we need, and then praying gives us the confidence that God is going to do something about it, when in reality, we make it happen ourselves.
It's like Ron Weasley and the Liquid Luck in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Harry tricks Ron into thinking he's had some of the potion, so Ron feels like he can do anything and wins the Quidditch match for Gryffindor, when in actuality, Ron makes that happen all with his own skills.
Prayers are Liquid Luck.
Now, back to the verse and the comment my friend made about it.
We are not going through our sorrow alone. . . because God has provided friends for us to lean on.
God is there; He does hear you.
He is omnipresent, so yeah, He knows what you face daily.
This is where we disagree, though. I don't believe that God reaches down and removes you from the hard situation; nor does He come down and whisper encouragement in your ear. But, God did come down as a human and subsequently die for us. Remembering that someone so powerful loves me so much is what gives me the strength to get through tough times (strength=confidence, God's love [and praying to Him because we believe in that love]=Liquid Luck). And it's what keeps me joyous always. Like this verse, "and no one can rob you of that joy," no situation or person can rob me of the joy I feel because of His love for me. Therefore, it is my daily intention to show God's love and light to others by being joyful in all things; to me, that is how God is with us and supports us on a daily basis - by giving us other people to experience life and share joy with. So that's what I try to do.
Pray for joy, and it will be "given," and then go and zealously seek out others to share that joy with.
