06Jun By Suzanne MarcellusJune 1, 20156Blog As another year passes, and life experiences grow, my perspective on life becomes further refined through the lens of the Holy Spirit. My days continue to be filled with the most precious moments and the most trying ones. I wake up with so many things to give God thanks for and yet so many things to ask, why? How long? What next? My question to the Lord today is what should we all do with our bitter sweet days. Do we cry, do we laugh, do we scream out in frustration, or do we sing songs of praise in the midst of our pain? Quite frankly, I think most of us, end up doing it all. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven” and he graciously continues about all the different joys and pains of life, but what do you do when the seasons all seem to be running together as one long season of life. How do we take comfort and hope in the fact that in everything there is truly a purpose greater than what we may be able to comprehend in the moment? I think about James 1: 2-8, “2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” When I meditate on verses 2-5 I know that something good and eternal is produced through each of our trials and I feel a sense of courage to pass the next test, but then I get to verses 6-8, and I whisper to the Lord, it’s hard not to be double minded when I’m having a double minded kind of day. Do any of you ever feel this way? Things happen that strengthen and weaken our faith all in the same breath. Today and every day, I will savor each moment of joy and despair, each moment of victory and seemingly defeat, while standing on His promise in John 16. Jesus was having a conversation with His disciples about the fact that he was going to be leaving them (death on the cross) and He would return to them (resurrection). I truly believe Jesus knows more about those bitter sweet days in life than we think He does. Jesus explains in verses 20-22, ” 20 Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. 21 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” Then in verse 33, He declares, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” So the answer is to make Jesus our focus point through our victories and challenges, because it is only in Him and through Him that we have perfect peace and unending joy. In the words of my great friend, Samantha Caballero, “Life will always be like a sour patch kid candy, we may suffer through the sourness but there is an everlasting sweetness with Christ..”