Trusting God In Difficult Times: Rejoicing In Suffering | Rev Elisha Satvinder

So I want to read just about four verses today. These four verses are literally the last verses of the book of Habakkuk. It started with him praying and saying, “God, why am I seeing all this pain around me? Why am I seeing injustice? Why do I see all these problems? Why do the wicked prosper? Why does it seem that people in power abuse their power?” And God’s response is, “If you think this is bad, I’m going to bring the Babylonians in, and it’s going to be worse.” That doesn’t sound like an answer we want, does it?

And then his second prayer: he says, “Hey, I’ve heard that you’re great, you know, but if you’re so great, God…” How many of us have a prayer like this? “God, if you’re so good…” Then he says, “Why?” So he’s, again, he’s wrestling. But he’s not wrestling from a position of being arrogant or shaking his fist at God. He is coming from a position of grappling to understand God and saying, “God, I know who you are. I know what it says about you, your word. I have the history. I know what happened in the beginning. It’s recorded in your word.” And remember, they had only the Old Testament, not the New Testament. “It’s recorded. We hear it, we hear these great deliverances, but it doesn’t make sense what’s happening now. It doesn’t make sense at all.” So he goes into that whole place of engaging God, and he says, “I will…”

Then, chapter 2, he says, “I am going to be a person who is going to take an elevated space.” You know, he talks about going up the rampart, going up the tower. We’ve seen the meaning of it, but it is taking a position where, “I want to hear God. I want to see God’s perspective, not my perspective,” and looking all around. And he goes through that again. Then chapter 3, he begins to just engage. He continues to engage God, and we will look at it a bit more today.

Chapter 3, actually, he takes a view back to the Exodus. Of course, when you read some of the words, we don’t really understand, but it actually is talking about how God brought deliverance from Egypt, through the wilderness, what God did. And then he comes to this end. He said:

“I heard, and my heart pounded;
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones;
my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.”

Just stop here for a while. Just go back to verse 16, because I’m going to come back to these four verses a few times today, so I want you to kind of just get a grasp of this. He said:

“Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.”

17:

“Though the fig tree does not bud,
and there are no grapes on the vines…”

Remember, they are an agricultural community; they are farmers. So if there is nothing growing in the farm, it’s a famine. That means there’s scarcity of food; there’s no food. Nothing is happening; people are getting hungry. There is a famine.

“…Though the fig tree does not bud…”

Fig tree—figs, food. It’s food, huh? Again, it’s food.

“…And there are no grapes on the vines…”

That’s where they drank, all that. That’s where they got their sustenance from.

“…Though the olive crop fails…”

Everything revolved around these few things.

“…And the fields produce no food…”

He says, “If all these fail…” That means the very thing that keeps the economy of the country going—the economy, the sustenance, gets everybody food in the belly. And if we don’t have all this…

“Though there are no sheep in the pen,
and no cattle in the stalls…”

No meat, okay? No beef burger, okay? No steak, nothing. So there’s no meat, there’s nothing, there’s no milk.

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord…”—and I talked a bit about this yesterday, yesterday, last week—

“…The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he will make my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.”

For the director of music on my stringed instruments. That’s it. He stops there.

Last week, very briefly—and I want to kind of just have the trajectory here—I gave you the five themes of this book. What are the five themes?

The problem of evil and God’s justice:

As I said earlier, what is Habakkuk wrestling with? He’s wrestling with the problem of evil. We all look at evil around us and we struggle. How can God let wickedness persist? Why is God delaying in His justice? But dear friends, the Lord is returning, whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not. The Lord is returning. Justice will come.

How can a good God allow evil and suffering? God’s response reveals His justice is often delayed but never absent.

We human beings, we struggle because we want to see God move swiftly. And many times, we want God to move on our timing, not His timing. But here we are called to trust God’s ultimate justice and God’s timing.

So, if you’re like me, I have a problem with God’s timing, right? Eleventh hour? I don’t like it. I like halim better, you know, not this midnight-hour thing.

Divine sovereignty:

His conversation with God underscores what? That God is in control. He’s in control of history, nations, events—even whatever appears to be chaotic. And from our human perspective, it really doesn’t look like God is in control, excuse me.

And God is using the Babylonians to accomplish His purpose ultimately. How does it—how do we understand this at all? So, He will bring justice to all people.

This sovereignty—and we read that last week, Sovereign God—I mean, he’s still coming back to that conclusion: God, you are in control. That is something our hearts must be convinced of. And in this framework, he says, “Then I can understand everything that’s going on around me.”

Faith and trust in God’s timing:

So that’s the major theme of this book—God’s purposes. To trust in His purposes, even when they seem delayed and hidden.

So what does this passage remind us of? You know, that God—the righteous will live by faith. That’s chapter 2, verse 4. God’s timing is perfect. Can we say this? God’s timing is perfect. God’s timing is perfect. You sound very sad. Can we say it with a bit of enthusiasm? God’s timing is perfect.

We need to wrap our minds around this, all right? God’s timing is perfect—even when it seems slow to us. Even when it seems slow to us. What is the call? To be patient, to trust God, and to hold firm upon His promises of ultimate deliverance.

Judgment and mercy:

Habakkuk’s prayer again reveals two truths: judgment and mercy. He says, “I’ve heard, and I know, God. Lord, let mercy come.” Again, he’s talking about that.

While God’s judgment is real, he pleads for mercy. So, the character of God is what? Both just and merciful. We see this throughout Scripture.

Joy in suffering:

The closing verses that we just read express joy and trust in God, even when there is suffering and deprivation.

So this reflects what again? A Bible theme that comes throughout the Scriptures. True joy.

What is true joy? Is there such a thing as true joy? How can I engage true joy? How can I be a recipient and a person who understands true joy? How am I a person to live in true joy and reflect true joy?

It’s not just having a false smile and saying, “Everything is good, everything is good, God is good,” all—no, that is sara, okay? That is just play-acting.

So how do I have this true joy, peace? It comes from a relationship with God. And we cannot have—church, I’ve been saying—we cannot have a superficial relationship with God. We cannot have a fluffed-up relationship with God.

You know, our joy is not based on prosperity. It’s not based on material prosperity or most material needs being met. It is not based on external circumstances. It’s about faith that transcends what is temporary, and it looks into the eternal. Amen? Okay, let’s try one more time—amen? Amen.

So let’s dive into this as we consider a few things, and we come to the communion table.

How do you—how do I—handle disappointments, failure, pain, and problems?

You may say, “My life is good. My job is good. The business is good. Family is good. Health is good.” But can you guarantee it stays? We can’t, isn’t it? I’m not preaching doom here, but the thing is this: we all have a measure—disappointment, betrayals, whatever it is—pain. How do you handle it? How can I handle disappointments, failure, pain, and problems?

So, a lot of people—you go to the self-help books area in your bookshop—do you realize how many books there are?

And when we want to sell something, sorry, especially insurance, huh? And all, we always paint this picture of how good it’s going to be. If only you listen to me.

We’re not God, you know, because we cannot dictate what’s going to happen, right?

So how do I handle problems? Everybody wants an answer for that. We want an answer for that, right? True, right?

And you don’t have to pay so much—you just listen to my message today!

So, listen to that. Think of this: God’s truth comes to us. How do I handle? I want to tell you a story of this person by the name of Captain Allen Gardiner—not Gardenia—Gardiner, okay? This was in the 1800s. He died in 1851. He was a naval captain, okay?

The ships had gone, and they had gone to South America—not South Africa, South America. And he saw the different needs and how the gospel needed to come to all the indigenous people. So he goes back to England. He gets prepared. He resigns from the Navy and starts actually a missionary organization.

And he sails. He sails. With a whole bunch of people, they experienced a lot of hardships. Some places they were rejected, not accepted.

So, they met their last journey—to the tip of that whole continent, South America. The tip of it.

Unfortunately, when they landed there, the people were so hostile that they couldn’t get food. And they ran out of food.

They all died.

He was the last to die.

He kept a journal. In that journal, he wrote, “All my friends have died. Remains me only. I probably have a few more days or a few weeks. But yet I want to honor God.”

That journal became something that people kept. You can actually go and read about him on Wikipedia. And this is what he wrote: he wrote Psalm 34:10.

I want you to remember—they are dying of starvation. All his friends have died. This is his last entry in his journal, the last page. He writes Psalm 34:10:

“Young lions do lack and suffer hunger. Young lions do lack and suffer hunger. But they who seek the Lord shall lack no good thing.”

I want to ask you something. When you are hungry, how’s your temperament? When you haven’t had food for a few days, how’s your temperament? When you don’t have what you want?

Now this is a guy who’s writing, and he’s saying, “All my friends are dead. I want to honor God.” He writes Psalms in there, 34:10.

And he pens this last thing:

“I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God.”

What did he encounter? I question God’s goodness when things don’t go my way. I don’t know about you.

“I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God.”

Wow.

This is his last sentence.

Let’s think about this for a moment here. How do you and I think about God’s goodness?

When do you say God is good? When there’s food in the belly? There’s money in the bank? There’s enough clothes, shoes, some measure of prosperity, happiness? Is God’s goodness measured by what I have?

I want you to think of Allen Gardiner: “I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God.”

Wow.

“Though the fig tree does not blossom.”

We seem to say God is good when I have what I want.

When the second ship came, they were a bit too late. They found all the dead bodies. So, the sailors, instead of rescuing people, were burying dead bodies. That was October 1851.

How do we do this? How do we handle disappointments, failure, pain, and problems? How do we go through all this and not lose joy?

Well, let’s look at one thing first:

How do I rejoice in suffering?

I want to go back to Habakkuk. Verse 17 says here:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
and there be no fruit on the vine;
though the yield of the olive should fail,
and the fields produce no food;
though the flock should be cut off from the fold,
and there be no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will exult in the Lord.
I will rejoice.”

Habakkuk is discovering that everything can fail.

And this is—remember, chapter one, he’s struggling. He is going back and forth with God, and he’s saying, “Look, there is a deeper truth to this.”

He’s talking about rejoicing.

What is rejoicing?

What is rejoicing? Look at verse 19. He says:

“The Lord God is my strength.
He has made my feet like hind’s feet,
and makes me walk on my high places.”

Two verses before, he is saying, “If there is nothing and everything is gone, the Lord God is my strength.”

And He has made my feet like hind’s feet, like the deer’s feet, and makes me walk in my high places, walking on the high mountain.

You remember earlier on in chapter 2, he says, “I will go on my rampart. I will go up because I’m going to have a view that if I stay down, I will never have that view. If I remain in my emotional discontent, I will never see that view. If I am dissatisfied, and I stay there, I cannot see anything. If I remain at the place of my human perspective, God, I’m going to miss your perspective, and I’m going to miss everything that you are showing me.”

Church, often we miss God’s perspective because our eyes, our mind, our heart is too locked into our perspective. It’s too locked into my need, my anger, my frustration, my disappointment, my loss. “I need this. Where are you, God? Where are you? If you are God, if God is good, why should I bother with God? Why should I honor God? Why should I give?”

I ask this because I’m on the ground, and I’ve never gone up to the mountain to get God’s perspective.

He’s saying here:

“The Lord is my strength.
He’s the one who’s made my feet like the hind’s feet.”

You know, climbing up mountains, treacherous mountains, you have to be so careful, right? If you slip, then you really can see God, yeah? If you slip, you’re gone.

But he’s saying, “I’m going to climb up this mountain, and you actually give me this.”

Challenge and problems push us up or push us down. What has it done to you? Your disappointments, your challenges—do they push you up to the presence of God, or do they push you away into your ranting?

Consider that.

The thing is this: we must go up to the mountain. We must pursue the presence of God. If not, we are pursuing our problem. We are dictated by our emotions. How often we are dictated by our emotions.

We are ranting. We are upset. We are disappointed. We are hurt. We have been wronged. We will not forget things.

How many of us hold on to things year after year after year? You hold this cancer, and you cannot seek God because you are holding on to a cancer. And you wonder why your heart is not healed.

You still complain about the same things. You still are upset about the same things.

And God is saying, “Come up.”

Remember John in the book of Revelation? “Come up here.”

We’re hanging down; we can’t see.

He says, “Look, all this. And if I can go up to that mountain, and if I can see my problems and people through this, then it will change.”

Why?

What do problems and suffering do to us?

Can you keep up with me, please? Yeah?

What do problems and sufferings do to us?

What do they do to us besides annoy us? Okay, what?

James has something to say here as well. He says:

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face…”

He didn’t say “Consider it pure joy when you have finished your problem,” right?

Remember the wise man built his house upon the rock; the foolish man built his house upon the sand.

Now, did both houses get the storm?

Which means what? How I build determines how I stand.

It never said, “When I build on the rock, there’s no rain.”

Our deception is this: we always think my problems are done the moment I say, “Abracadabra! Jesus is my Lord!”

That’s not true.

See, we have a false perception. Why? We’re on the ground; we’re not moving up.

So he says:

“Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds…”

“…because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

I want to be strong physically without going to the gym. I want to be strong without eating the right thing. I want rojak and teh tarik kurang manis.

“Let perseverance finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Wow.

Our perception—you see, when I go through trials, I can either get tender, softer, or bitter, cynical, judgmental. I can get harder. I can be empathetic, sympathetic, or bitter, cynical. It can make me humble, or it can make me arrogant. Then I become self-righteous. I gloat in my problem.

“You don’t know my problems!” Yes, and I don’t want to know your problems. I mean, yeah. “Oh, you don’t know what I’m suffering.” Good, talk to Jesus then.

We can be self-righteous in our problems. “You don’t know what they did to me.”

Yeah, do we know? Do we remember what they did to Jesus for our salvation?

See, if I look at the cross, it changes my perspective. If I don’t look at the cross, then I look at myself.

Is this making sense, church? Think about it.

So, it becomes about me, mine, I. “I will never forgive because… Do you know what he did to me? Do you know what she did? Are you aware of…”

Stop.

You’re on the ground.

You are not pushing yourself because the problem is supposed to push us up.

What are we doing? We’re taking a deep dive and saying, “I want to remain down, and I want to drown. I want to slip from the—I want to slip and die.”

In faith, like Allen Gardiner:

“I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God.”

He could have said, “God, can you see I’m dying? You told me to come to be a missionary in this place.”

Verse 19:

“The Lord God is my strength, not will be, is my strength.
He has made my feet like the hind’s feet, like the deer’s feet—strong, secure—and makes me walk on my high places.”

I want that high place.

I don’t want the low place.

Which one will we pick, church? High place or low place?

(Some say “High place.”)

Come on, high or low?

On the ground or further up?

Up!

It’s a choice. It’s a choice.

You either get better, or you get worse.

Your suffering, your problems, your disappointments—all, whatever you go through—will either lift you up to the heights, or it will destroy you.

It’ll cause you to make excuses, blame-shift, but it will never address the condition of your heart.

When does rejoicing happen?

Well, it happens at the same time.

Verse 16—excuse me, if you—it’s not on the slides. So, I mean, it is on the slides, actually.

Verse 16, he says here:

“I heard, and my inward parts trembled;
at the sound, my lips quivered.”

He’s talking about crying. He’s pouring out. He says:

“I’m pouring out my heart;
decay enters my bones;
and in my place, I tremble.”

He’s talking about grief. “I’m full of grief.”

And then the next part, he says:

“Because I must wait…”

We saw it earlier:

“They that wait upon the Lord…”

But the word wait here has the idea of deep peace.

I cannot know deep peace if I don’t know the Prince of Peace—Jesus.

Our world is looking for peace. Peace treaty? Mana ada? Peace? Let’s make peace.

We are looking for peace everywhere, but we cannot find true peace minus the Prince of Peace.

Our hearts will always wander and never be at rest if we don’t have His peace.

Only His peace will say to the storm, “Be calm.”

Where do we do problems? Rejoicing takes place in the midst of dealing with issues, okay?

So it happens at the same time.

He says:

“Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,
for the people who arise who will invade us.”

He says the day is coming. It’s going to be a problem.

Which means—you know what he’s saying here? Problems will take place.

When we read the New Testament, Jesus says, “Be of good cheer, there will be many trials, right?”

But He says, “Look, I have overcome.”

Come on, church.

He says, “I have overcome.”

Come on.

He says, “I have overcome.”

But I cannot just say, “Jesus overcame.” I must know Him. And only then, in Him, when I take that perspective on the mountain—in His presence, in His truth, engaging and wrestling with it—then I can embrace that peace.

Then I can embrace that comfort and that assurance.

Like Mr. Gardiner:

“I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God.”

As I prepared this, I read this, and I said, “Can I say that? I am overwhelmed. I’m not joyful. I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God.”

I’m overwhelmed with problems. I’m overcome with problems. I’m overcome with emotions.

How does one rejoice?

It’s not either/or. We’ll have problems.

But the thing is, the problem drives us into God, into His presence.

Let me read Hebrews 12:2:

Jesus.

Okay, let me read this for you.

He says—let me read verse 1:

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let us lay aside every encumbrance and every sin…”

Okay?

“…And every sin which so easily entangles us.
And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Verse 2 is the kicker for me in this message:

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

We have that song:

“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”

“Fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of faith…”

Does it stop there? No.

“…Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross.”

Who for the joy set before Him.

How can that be joyful—that pain, that torture, that rejection?

Why?

Jesus saw beyond that, because His confidence was in the Father who sent Him.

And your and my confidence is in the God who sent us. The God who saves us. The God who redeems us. The God who loves us. The God who restores us.

And the soon-and-coming God who will come back to judge the world.

Live with that perspective.

“Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Wow.

My problems dictate whether I worship God.

Why should I worship God? Why should I give? Why should I honor? Why should I serve? Why, why, why, why, why?

How does one rejoice?

A few areas.

Number one: This whole thing of repeat and retell.

Excuse me, verse 18. He says:

“I will exult in the Lord.
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”

You see that repetition there?

He said, “I will rejoice. I will exult.”

The thing is this—let’s look at Psalms now.

Sorry, let’s go back to Habakkuk first.

He said:

“I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will be joyful.”

Jesus says, He repeats, isn’t it? “Verily, verily, I say to you…”

Look at the next one here, the next Scripture.

He says:

“One thing God has spoken,
two things I have heard…”

If you read the Scripture, you realize a lot of things are repetitious. Because it reminds us.

We need to be reminded.

How often do we tell children, “Have you forgotten?”

How often do we tell children, “Have you forgotten?” Power belongs to you, God.

So Habakkuk is what? He’s remembering.

Now, if I am convinced who Jesus is, then I will connect the truth of who He is and what He is to the issue of my problem.

Habakkuk says:

“The Lord God is my strength.
God, who are you?”

The first two, three chapters, he’s wrestling with this:

“The Lord God is my strength.
You make me to be strong, my feet to be strong, to climb up there.
You will take me to the high places, to the place I need to be at.”

So he is remembering.

Church, connect—no, can I—can you go back? Remember? Yeah. Sorry, the next one, please. Yeah, okay, remember.

So, first is repeat daily.

Do we repeat God’s word in our hearts, in our minds daily?

Quiet time can be very quiet, isn’t it?

But reading the Bible can also be very boring.

But yet it is the word that gives us strong feet to go on the mountaintop and to stand firm.

And then we remember. Chapter 3—you read it, I hope you would read it. He’s actually talking about the Exodus when God delivered them from Egypt.

Psalms 42, he says:

“Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”

Who is the psalmist talking to? To God?

(No, this is not a trick question.)

Is he talking to God?

Who is he talking to?

To himself.

Who is he reminding? Himself.

“Why—hey, what’s wrong with you? Come on! Why are you so downcast? Why? Come on, put your hope in God,” he says. “Come on, I will yet praise Him.”

“Hey, come, let’s pray.” “No, I don’t want to pray.” “Pray for what? Pray? I’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, and I’ve done it a couple of times too.”

Next one:

“Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise His holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all His benefits.”

Who is he talking to? Himself.

Have we forgotten?

We forget, isn’t it? Scripture says so.

The thing is this: connect our past. He talks about the Exodus in chapter 3. “Hey, has God not been good to you even once in your life?”

Have we looked at this and said, “God…”

Same in chapter 3, remember, he says:

“Lord, I have heard the report about You, and I fear.
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years.
In wrath, remember mercy.”

He’s asking God to remember something, but he’s saying, “I remember also who You are, God.”

Because we’re quick to forget.

Politicians like to use this, isn’t it? “They all forget.” But they also forget they’re on a short leash, you know?

Hey, connect the past to our present condition.

Can we now delve every day? This—we have what, Day 14 now? Our prayer, Day 14, Day 15—come on, pick it up. It’s done. Read the word, take the prayer, engage.

Remember His mercy.

Why does God ask us to remember? Simple. Because we forget very quickly.

So when we recognize past experiences of God’s faithfulness and we apply them to our current trials, what is happening?

We are affirming how God’s truth remains relevant and powerful in today’s struggles.

Let me ask you a question: what does it mean that Jesus rose from the dead to you?

Never mind about what it means theologically—what does it mean to you personally?

What does it mean to you personally that Jesus rose from the dead?

What does it mean to you?

He rose from the dead, sure. Because what?

How you embrace that truth determines how you walk in that freedom.

If that is just something you’ve heard, you’ll never embrace the power of the cross. You’ll never embrace the power of His resurrection. You’ll always struggle. You’ll remain down and never get up and see God’s perspective.

Does this make sense, everyone?

And the last thing we see here is this:

I know I just put “rejoicing,” and I say, “What is rejoicing?”

Rejoicing is to repeat, retell.

The Bible always—it’s daily engaging, it’s remembering.

But also, remember this: rejoicing is not a feeling. It’s not a feeling.

Because when you are feeling angry, then you’re not going to feel God’s peace.

Look at who He is.

If you read this book again a few times, you’ll realize Habakkuk is taking hold of who God is.

Jesus asked this question:

“Who do people say I am?”

Some say, “You’re John the Baptist.”

Some say, “You’re one of the prophets.”

Some say, “You’re Elijah, who’s come back to life.”

And Jesus asked the most pivotal question:

“Who do you say I am?”

Who do you say I am?

Who do you say He is?

Don Potter, who wrote this song “Who Do You Say I Am”, struggles daily because everybody is saying who they are, and we are saying who we are. But we will never be able to be all that God wants us to be if we don’t understand who He is.

Then my faith is dictated by feelings and circumstances. It’s dictated by what others say.

If I feel good, then when the feeling is no good, then it’s another feeling. And I keep having to come back because I need another shot of the “heroin” of good feelings because why? The feeling is gone.

But when I say, “Even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom, even if there’s no fruit on that vine, even if the olive doesn’t bear, there’s no grain in the field, there’s no animal—I will rejoice.”

Allen Gardiner:

“I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God.”

Is this possible that we see the repetition?

Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it again—rejoice!

He’s sitting in a prison, writing this!

Church, our place of maturing—we read in James—it’s not our feel-good “I have everything answered.”

It is, “I know the one who gives true joy. I know this: My Redeemer lives. I know His mercy. I know His grace. I know who Jesus is.”

Rejoicing is a discipline. It’s not a feeling.

It’s not just mental.

Give me a few minutes, I’ll wrap this up.

And I want us to get ready for this.

Have you heard the word “treasure”? That’s the idea here.

If I treasure something, I hold dearly to it, right?

If I treasure my position, my position gives me identity. If I treasure my bank account, that gives me identity.

If I treasure what? My job? My business? My education?

What do I adore?

Luke 10 says here:

“The seventy-two returned with joy and said…”

Jesus sent them out two by two. He says, “Go, go and tell them all about me.”

Then they came back.

(They came back rejoicing.)

Luke 10—I’ll read this, and I’ll make one or two comments.

The seventy-two returned with joy. With what? Joy.

Man, they were happy. They were like, “Wow! It’s happening, man! The demons were jumping out of the window! Whoa! There is power in my hands!”

I mean, yeah! I mean, oh! I tell you, just one word. See, when things are “wow,” they were really excited.

They said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name!”

Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

Shift, isn’t it?

He says, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.”

It’ll be nice to just stop there, isn’t it? Yes?

True or not? If I was writing, I’d stop there.

But look at verse 20:

“However…”

Everybody say, “However.”

However…

Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you.

See, ministry for some of us can be so big. “My ministry! Oh, I prophesy. Oh, I preach. Oh, I do this. Oh, my job. Oh, my business. Oh, my family. Oh, my, my…”

Oh, oh, oh—whatever.

But He says, “Rejoice in this thing: that your names are…” The word “written” is inscribed.

Isaiah says:

“I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.
I can’t forget you.
I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”

But He says:

“Rejoice.”

Wow.

We rejoice in the wrong things.

We treasure what is temporary.

Hard question: All of you going to college or university—if you cannot go to school anymore, zero capacity or ability to do it, how will your faith be?

Will it push you up to the mountain?

Businesspeople, if you go bankrupt—oh, Pastor, don’t say that again! Listen, how long will you praise God?

In December, your company folds up.

What will you do?

These are questions I ask myself.

Will I rejoice? Or will I say, “God, huh? God? No. It’s the devil. No. It’s the government. No. It’s this lousy boss, this lousy school, this lousy university, this lousy country, this…”

Stop.

Have I learned to be joyful in the midst?

Is there a lesson that God is teaching me to say, “I need you to climb on higher ground”?

Because we’re so busy blaming people, but we have never taken Jesus as our treasure and said, “Lord, I will honor You. I will worship You.”

It’s not easy. Come on, let’s be honest—it’s not easy, right?

But church, this is our challenge.

Let’s seek Him. 2025—make it a goal: “Lord, I want to seek You. Your face is what I want to seek, not Your hand. Lord, I’m going to make it a point. I’m going to wrestle with Your Word. Your Word is going to shape me and change me. God, I’m going to adjust my attitudes. I’m going to change my perspective of who You are and what Your Word says.

I’m going to grumble less. I’m going to complain less. I’m going to accuse and blame-shift less. I’m going to be less judgmental.”

Circumstances come and go and will change.

But Jesus—church, what remains the same?

He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Trusting God In Difficult Times: Rejoicing In Suffering | Rev Elisha Satvinder

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