We zoomed again last night for prayer and Bible study and it was okay. A friend from Spain joined us so that was lovely (once we managed to get his volume levels right). I took us to an obvious place - Philippians 4:4-7. I found some nice illustrations for joy and peace, which I will add at the end. We prayed as a group and that went okay. Need to work on the self-benediction at the end, however.
JOY
In his book In God's Underground the Christian pastor Richard Wurmbrand from Romania who they put in solitary confinement in the sixties writes about joy like this
I found that joy can be acquired like a habit, in the same way a folded sheet of paper falls naturally into the same fold. "Be joyful," is a command of God. John Wesley used to say that he "was never sad even one quarter of an hour." I cannot say the same of myself, but I learned to rejoice in the worst conditions.
The Communists believe that happiness comes from material satisfaction; but alone in my cell, cold, hungry, and in rags, I danced for joy every night. Words alone have never been able to say what man feels in the nearness of divinity. Sometimes I was so filled with joy that I felt I would burst if I did not give it expression. I remembered the words of Jesus, Blessed are you when men come to hate you, when they exclude you from their company and reproach you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! I told myself, "I've carried out only half this command. I've rejoiced, but that is not enough. Jesus clearly says that we must also leap."
When next the guard peered through the spy-hole, he saw me springing about my cell. His orders must have been to distract anyone who showed signs of breakdown, for he padded off and returned with some food from the staff room: a hunk of bread, some cheese, and sugar. As I took them I remembered how the verse in Luke went on: Rejoice in that day and leap for joy - for behold your reward is great. It was a very large piece of bread - more than a week's ration.
I rarely allowed a night to pass without dancing, from then on; although I was never paid for it again, I made up songs and sang them softly to myself and danced to my own music. The guards became used to it. I did not break the silence, and they had seen many strange things in these subterranean cells. Friends to whom I spoke later of dancing in prison asked, "What for? What use was it?" It was not something useful. It was a manifestation of joy like the dance of David, a holy sacrifice offered before the altar of the Lord. I did not mind if my captors thought I was mad, for I had discovered a beauty in Christ that I had not known before.
PEACE
Helen Roseveare who served the Lord in the Congo in the fifties at the time of great unrest and many troubles wrote of a time when rebel soldiers were present and starting at one end of a large room, were taking women away one by one and bringing them back after they were finished with them. Her first impulse was to hide and try not to have to bear this humiliation again. Then she thought of Jesus. He put himself forward as a substitute for us. The fellowship of his sufferings - she moved to the front, to try to protect some of the other women from undergoing a new trauma they might possibly have escaped so far. She later wrote
Together we learned why God has given us His name as "I AM" (Exodus 3:14). His grace always proved itself sufficient in the moment of need, but never before the necessary time, and rarely afterwards. As I anticipated suffering in my imagination and thought of what these cruel soldiers would do next, I quivered with fear. I broke out in a cold sweat of horror. As I heard them drive into our village, day or night, my mouth would go dry: my heart would miss a beat. Fear gripped me in an awful vice. But when the moment came for action, He gave me a quiet, cool exterior that He used to give others courage too: He filled me with a peace and an assurance about what to say or do that amazed me and often defeated the immediate tactics of the enemy.
Don't miss that in Christ Jesus either. It is not your prayer or mine that ultimately does it but Jesus Christ alone.
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