WORD WEDNESDAY - Joy Ahead!

Browsing Facebook the other day, I clicked on one of those "who is your..." or "what is your word?" or, in this case, "What is your verse for the year?"

Some of them are quite comical!  Others, well, they may be truer than we wish to admit!

This one?  Well, just read the verse that came up:

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace."  (Isaiah 55:12).

Spot on!  That is my word for the year; and here I find a verse to go with it, from that silly Facebook "game"!

I read the verse in the two versions of the Bible I most often use, New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and The Message (MSG).  The NRSV says:

"For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace..."

And The Message says:

"So you'll go out in joy, you'll be led into a whole and complete life."

I love the way both of them start with joy; and end in peace and a complete life.

The past few posts for my Word Wednesday - Word for the Year - have been quite "down".  I've actually struggled to find joy in much of anything!  So much going on around us: shootings, natural disasters, illnesses, even this {dare I say it} political drama!

During these times of difficult circumstances, I must remember to lean on God; to trust that He has it all under control; to know that I can still find joy in the difficult!

Ann Voskamp says:

We must look carefully, through the trials and difficult circumstances, through the eyes of God...

And we can "always, always, always" find "something to be thankful for."

And when we have found that "something to be thankful for," joy will also be found, right near that heart of thankfulness!

Learning to lean on God through the difficult times in our lives may be difficult for us, too!  Yet, He is there for us through it all.  And as we journey through the difficult...

We can know with assurance that He leads us through the difficult, to find joy at the end of our journey!