Psalm 126:5 tell us that they that sow in tears, will reap in joy. The word also tells us in Psalm 56:8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. So..... me being the thinker that I am, I got to thinking about these 2 scriptures and said to myself well if God collects our tears and He does and they that sow in tears shall reap in joy, and they do then I think that our tears could be stored up for when we are in those dry and weary places and He just says let me pour out some rain (tears) because you dear child are now traveling through a dry and dusty place on this journey.
Apposed to what some T.V. ministers will teach you every day is not your best day and every day is not all joyous and full of wonderful surprises and happiness and love and joy. That is just not true and the word does not bear it out to be true. There are times that we will go through places on our spiritual walk with the Lord that it is just as dry and parched as it can be and we are saying oh Lord help me!!! I need the rain, send down the rain, send down the rain, open the floodgates of Heaven and let it rain. Don't we sing these type of worship songs? But for some reason people still buy into this every day is just a bag full of roses gospel and it is just not so, we find many stories in the word that lets us know that some days are just plain ole tough and it is just us and the Lord and in the midst of these times we may feel lost and alone.
There is a story in the word that tells of the children of Israel after they had left Egypt and were Canaan bound. It's just a little seemingly insignificant story to some but it struck me as quite profound. The story is found in Exodus 15,the story of the bitter waters of Marah. Now God had led them this way and they get here after 3 days without water only to discover that the water is so bitter that they cannot drink it at all. Now wait a minute, am I to understand this? God led them this way? Why? Why in the world would the Lord God lead them this way knowing all along that the waters were bitter? That just don't seem right. Doesn't sound like most of the teaching/preaching I hear so much of but it still is the truth. Sometimes God will lead you through a circumstance that is just bad but He knows that you will come out stronger on the other side. What is so funny to me about this is that earlier in this same chapter they are singing and dancing before the Lord because He had destroyed their enemies and now they are beginning to grumble and gripe because the waters are bitter. Like the same God that had just destroyed their enemies couldn't make the bitter waters sweet?
Isn't that just like us? Oh we love us some Jesus as long as everything is going along just fine. As long as we are healthy and well and wise. As long as our bills are all paid and we are prospering, we are just the happy little followers of Jesus but as soon as we hit a major bump or curve in the road we fall to the wayside like a spoiled child that didn't get there way. The Israelites were no different, I can assure you. They grumbled and griped constantly about any of a number of things but in this particular story it was the water but what did God in His gracious way do for them? He turned the bitter waters to sweet.
What I am saying today is this. When we are only following Jesus when things are going good and we are happy and well, then are we true followers? But, when we follow Him through the dessert places and we follow Him when the waters are bitter and we follow Him when our finances are out of wack and when our bodies are hurting and when our kids are not acting right and we follow Him through it all, then that says to a lost and dying world that we are true followers and there really must be something to this Jesus stuff. When they see us in the midst of the storm keeping our cool and with unwavering faith hanging on to the only one that can help us through it, when we are happy no matter what our circumstances then and only then are we truly being a shining light to a lost and dying world.
The Apostle Paul wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and most of it was penned from a jail cell. He said these words Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. From a jail cell he wrote that and meant every word. He also said in Philippians 4:12
I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content--whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. From a jail cell he said these and many other things and here we are well fed, with a roof over our heads, clothes to wear and not once have we been stoned, left for dead, and beaten. Not once. We are wimps in comparison to the Bible saints, to say the very least. We have bought into this comfortable Christianity that says as long as you say the right things, you will get the right things and as long as you have the faith you will always prosper and have lots of money. But see the word doesn't tell us that. The word, in fact, does say I would that you prosper even as your soul prospers. Noone wants to talk about the prosperity of the spirit or soul, just the physical prosperity that brings riches and land and honor and prestige, power and titles.
Of course I am not excited, elated or thrilled to be the next in line to suffer but I do live with a reality that lets me know that in a fallen and sinful world there are times that I will and I still have a wonderful and mighty God that is in complete and total control of all of it and He loves me enough to capture my tears in a bottle for a day that I need rain.
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