Enjoy the journey

[Ebn Barbara]

As we live in this body, serving the Lord doing the mission he ordered us to do, we walk in a journey that starts from our birth, evolve more when we know the Lord and become his children, and ends up when we go to meet Him in heaven, and stay with him for ever.
And God’s message to us today is: " to enjoy the journey ".
God’s word tells us:
" Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life " (Proverbs 13 : 12).
We all wish and hope to fulfill certain things.. but when these hopes and wishes don’t come true, or when they are late and postponed, we get disappointed and frustrated we feel like failure, and God’s word said:
Hope deferred makes the heart sick..
If we make a statistic study among believers, about the expectations and the wishes they waited for to be fulfilled and didn’t, or won’t be fulfilled at all, we would find them all included in this matter, and maybe some of them are sick of waiting.. not enjoying their journey with the Lord or even worse..
The reason behind this is that we have put certain frames for ourselves.. certain standards.. certain goals.. and we’ve chained our pleasure, joy and peace to their fulfillment.. so when they didn’t, our hearts got sick..
Let me explain.. We wonder about many questions:
When these wars facing me will end? When these thoughts of fear and worry will stop? When these temptations I am facing will end? When these storms raging against me will stop? When these strives and divisions I am facing from those who are around me will end? When this struggle inside of me will stop? I want to walk like the Lord wants me to, but I am facing an violent resistance?
And when.. and when.. and when…?
And we’ve put to ourselves this equation:
" when these things end, I will be happy.. victorious.. having peace and enjoying my life ".
As if the end of these things we’re facing has become our primary goal, and their conclusion will guarantee our pleasure.
But the answer is:
Nothing of what we’ve mentioned will ever end or stop.. until we go to heaven !!!
Every hope for any of these things to stop or end.. is a delayed postponed hope or more honestly it won’t be fulfilled.. and it makes the heart sick.. and this is our situation today, because we’ve missed the way or the expectation.. and this is what we want to correct in order to enjoy the journey.
Beloveds: if we realize today that our primary mission and goal in life are:
Fulfilling the great commission which the Lord gave us: to go to the whole world and preach the good news, working hard to spread the kingdom of God, and overcome the kingdom of darkness, and if we realize that what will come our way from hardships and challenges and problems and war etc... and if we didn’t count the cost , and knew that the joy of the journey doesn’t come from escaping these wars and challenges, but from fulfilling God’s plan in our life, and facing all that comes against it with peace, joy and victory, then we would put end to every failure and weary and chaos that is in our life.. because God’s plan to His children is not to end the wars and struggles and challenges, it is to overcome them.. fulfilling His plan with joy and peace.
Come with me to God’s word to have a more complete picture, to find answers, and to restore the situation again..
The apostle Paul said:
" And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying: that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God " (Acts 20 : 22 – 24).
" Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice… Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus ". (Philippians 4 : 4 – 7).
" Rejoice always " (1 Thessalonians 5 : 16).
" My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing " (James 1 : 2 – 4).
" Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy " (1 Peter 4 : 12 – 13).
An invitation to joy, happiness, and enjoyment is dedicated to all believers from three disciples: Paul, James and Peter..
The strange thing is not in the invitation to joy, happiness, and enjoyment, because we all want this, the strange and the explicit contradiction, are in the invitation to joy, happiness, and enjoyment through hardships temptations and trials, and what we might expect from violent problems and confrontations and other similar things..
In an indirect way, it is an invitation to enjoy the journey not the end of it !!!
This is the core of the subject.. the heart of our devotion today.
This is a great challenge to the human mind who says:
" I delight when I finish the work ".
But today the Lord wants to change our mind to become:
" I delight while doing the work.. I enjoy the journey !!! ".
When we realize that our primary mission and our only obsession is, as we’ve mentioned, the great commission, the winning of the lost.. the spreading of the kingdom.. the defeat of Satan.. no matter how great the sacrifices and the challenges are..
And when we know that our joy and peace are not at the end of these challenges and hardships, but in facing them with victory, we would be able to enjoy the journey no matter how hard and exhausting it was..
This is from one side.. And from another side, the Lord said to His disciples and through them to us: " 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 " (John 16 : 33).

" Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid ".
(John 14 : 27).
The Lord didn’t hide the hardships, the challenges and the wars of the journey, he didn’t hide the tribulation that we will have as long as we are in this body, but He guaranteed that we can overcome and that we can have peace during the journey, a different kind of peace..
Not the peace of the world, but His peace, peace in Christ, as the verses say..
And in order to understand, we need to know the difference between joy peace and pleasure of the world, and the peace joy and delight of the Lord.
The joy, the peace and the pleasure that are according to the world’s standards, won’t be felt unless the world conditions are met..
Because we only feel them when we don’t face problems, hardships, challenges, wars, oppositions and persecutions.. or when we overcome these once and never face them again.
But because this will never come true on earth.. then we will never get them.. no matter how much we hoped for this, it will remain a delayed hope that makes the heart sick, and this is our situation today..
But the Lord’s joy, peace and delight, don’t depend on the changing circumstances, neither on the end of wars, problems, challenges and hardships, for this reason they remain in us no matter what.. and for this reason we can enjoy the journey no matter how hard it went..

If a mouse will attack a lion thousands of times per day, the lion won’t be influenced, he won’t worry nor fear, because he is a lion and the aggressor is a mouse..
But the opposite is not the same !!!
David said:
" Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war should rise against me, In this I will be confident " (Psalms 27 : 3).
The writer of Psalm 112 said:
" He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established; He will not be afraid… " (Psalms 112 : 7 – 8).
It is the same attitude of the three apostles.. the war is rising against him.. but he has no fear.. he is even confident during the war, as if the war is granting him confidence.. he knows that the war against him will not stop, he knows that the attacks against him will not stop, yet he has no fear and he is confident. Many bad news.. but he has no fear.. his peace is not shaken.. his heart is counting on his God..
Both of them with the three apostles.. are enjoying the journey in the midst of what is facing them of danger, wars, problems, hardships and bad news.. because they have the peace and the joy of the Lord.. not the peace and the joy of the world !!!
The joy, peace, pleasure and confidence that the world or the logic thinking gives us, has its own conditions as we’ve mentioned.. everything should be ok in order for us to feel them.. and this will not come true because of what we go through as believers, as humans because the world is put in evil.. this is what causes our hope to be delayed and not fulfilled and this is what causes our heart to get sick..
But if we realized deep in our hearts today, that the real joy and true peace, are the fruit of the Spirit, which don’t count on circumstances to be fulfilled in our lives, and if we realized that they are not influenced by wars, hardships, struggles that we face, and that they increase during such times.. we would know how to enjoy the journey.. and we would have stopped putting certain standards and plans to have joy and peace.. because they won’t be fulfilled and they will remain a delayed hope that makes the heart sick.

And Paul says, confirming what I am telling you:
" And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit " (1 Thessalonians 1 : 6).

The believers of Thessalonica got hold to the Lord and Paul’s teaching and standards to receive peace, joy and delight in the journey, they received the word in much affliction.. but with joy of the Holy Spirit, because no one can rejoice during affliction, if this joy is not coming from the Holy Spirit, who is not influenced by the hard circumstances..

When Paul said to the believers: rejoice in the Lord all the time and I say again rejoice..
He justified this request which is strange according to the logic..
" at all times " means in all circumstances, the hard ones, the weary ones, the anxious ones and the scary ones…
But he explained to them how:
" And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus ".
A peace that surpasses logic and minds and human understanding which don’t rejoice or delight in peace unless things are going well and circumstances are good.

At the end there are two things:
1 - to realize and know our primary mission and the hardships we’re going to face, and to count the cost from the beginning, so we don’t’ loose power when wars and hardships attack us as if they are strange things happening to us.
2 - to realize that wars, problems, hardships and challenges will not end nor stop, so let us not wait and hope for things that will never come true and make our hearts sick.

Do not build your faith on circumstances and their changes, but on God alone:
Believe and you shall be safe.. there is no other way, and ask God to tear down all the fake safety foundations that you’ve built for yourself, which Satan has deceived you with, ask Him to tear down the world’s logic and standards.

Trust that no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape.
(1 Corinthians 10 : 13).

Trust that in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8 : 37).

And at the end..
An inerasable truth, a golden conclusion that the Lord wants to tell you:
Enjoy the journey not its end..

[بنت معلم الاجيال]

Thank you

very beautiful