> The New Testament speaks of peace and joy as core marks of the Christian life:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”
—Philippians 4:4
“The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
—Philippians 4:7
Yet the Bible is equally honest about suffering and sorrow:
“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death…”
—Jesus in Gethsemane, Matthew 26:38
“We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength
that we despaired of life itself.”
—2 Corinthians 1:8
How can Christians be called to joy and peace while living in a world of suffering, grief, and lament?
This is the paradox:
Peace and joy vs. suffering and lament.
We’ll explore:
- Why this is a paradox, not a contradiction
- Different levels of experience: surface emotions vs. deep-rooted joy
- Lament as faithful expression, not unbelief
- The purpose of suffering in building our faith (James 1)
- Ecclesiastes and the seasons of life (including painful ones)
- How believers can hold both tears and trust, grief and hope together today
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1. Paradox, Not Contradiction
A contradiction would be:
- “Christians always feel happy and peaceful,”
and - “Christians often feel sorrow and turmoil,”
both claimed in exactly the same way, at the same time.
The Bible doesn’t say that. Instead, it says something more nuanced and honest.
Paul describes himself and his co-workers as:
“Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing…”
—2 Corinthians 6:10
Notice both:
- Sorrowful – real grief, real pain, real tears.
- Always rejoicing – a deeper, enduring joy that coexists with sorrow.
Augustine captured this tension:
“The life of the Christian is a mixture of sorrow and joy:
sorrow for what we are now, joy for what we shall be.”
—paraphrased
So:
- Peace and joy do not mean the absence of suffering and lament.
- They mean a deeper reality that can live within suffering and lament.
2. Different Levels of Experience
To understand this paradox, we need to distinguish levels of experience.
A. Surface-Level Emotions: Real, Changeable, Often Painful
Human emotions naturally respond to life:
- Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:35).
- Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” for his unbelieving kinsmen (Romans 9:2).
- The Psalms are full of fear, anger, confusion, and grief.
Our surface-level experience often reflects:
- Loss, disappointment, physical and emotional pain,
- Seasons of darkness or depression.
These are not fake; God doesn’t ask us to pretend otherwise.
B. Deep-Level Joy and Peace: Rooted in Christ, Not Circumstances
At the same time, Scripture speaks of a deeper, more stable joy and peace:
“Though you have not seen him, you love him.
Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”
—1 Peter 1:8
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.”
—Isaiah 26:3
This deeper reality is:
- Grounded in who God is, not how we feel right now.
- Sustained by the Holy Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Galatians 5:22)
- Connected to hope in what God has promised but not yet fully revealed.
C.S. Lewis called joy a “serious business of heaven”—
something deeper than pleasure, rooted in God Himself.
So Christians may feel:
- Emotionally troubled on the surface
- While still possessing an anchor of joy and peace at the core.
That’s why Paul can speak of being:
“Afflicted in every way, but not crushed…
perplexed, but not driven to despair…
struck down, but not destroyed.”
—2 Corinthians 4:8–9
The outer life is battered; the inner life is upheld.
3. Lament as a Faithful Expression, Not Unbelief
Some believers assume that real faith means:
- Always smiling,
- Never admitting sorrow,
- Avoiding words of confusion or complaint.
But the Bible includes a whole category called lament—
honest cries of distress directed to God, not away from Him.
A. The Psalms of Lament
Many Psalms sound shockingly raw:
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?”
—Psalm 13:1
“Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”
—Psalm 10:1
These are not the words of atheists, but of believers
who bring their agony directly to God.
Mark Vroegop (a modern pastor) defines lament as:
“A prayer in pain that leads to trust.”
Lament typically includes:
- Addressing God (“O Lord…”)
- Honest complaint (“Why…? How long…?”)
- Bold request (“Arise, O Lord! Consider my plight…”)
- Expression of trust (“But I will trust in your steadfast love…”)
Psalm 13 shows this movement:
“How long, O Lord…?” (vv. 1–2)
“Consider and answer me…” (v. 3)
“But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” (v. 5)
Lament is faith in motion—
faith that is hurting, questioning, and yet still turning toward God.
B. Even Jesus Laments
On the cross Jesus cries:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
—Matthew 27:46 (quoting Psalm 22:1)
He is not abandoning the Father; He is praying Scripture from a place of deepest agony.
So:
- Lament is not the opposite of peace and joy;
- It is often the path through which deep peace and joy are renewed.
4. The Purpose of Suffering: Joy in Trials (James 1)
James famously writes:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect,
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
—James 1:2–4
James is not saying:
- Trials are pleasant
- We should enjoy pain for its own sake
He is saying:
- Trials, under God’s hand, have a purpose.
- That purpose is to strengthen and mature our faith.
A. What Suffering Produces
According to James and the wider New Testament, suffering for the believer:
- Tests and refines faith
- Reveals whether our trust is in God or in our circumstances.
- Produces steadfastness (perseverance)
- We learn to keep walking when we don’t see the path clearly.
- Shapes Christlike character
- Paul:“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…”
—Romans 5:3–4
- Paul:“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
Suffering is a furnace, not a random accident.
God uses it to burn away illusions, deepen dependence, and form Christ’s image in us.
John Calvin wrote:
“Whatever kind of tribulation presses upon us,
we should always set before ourselves this end,
that we may be brought to repentance, and so be prepared for the life to come.”
—paraphrased from his commentary on Romans 5
B. Joy In Suffering, Not Instead Of Suffering
“Count it all joy” doesn’t mean:
- “Feel happy about the pain itself.”
It means:
- Recognize, even through tears, that God is at work for your good,
- So that beneath grief there can be a current of joy in His faithfulness and purposes.
Paul embodies this paradox:
“As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing…”
—2 Corinthians 6:10
Both are true at once.
5. Ecclesiastes: A Time for Every Season
Ecclesiastes offers a sober, realistic view of life:
“For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
…a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance…”
—Ecclesiastes 3:1–4
A. Honoring the Seasons God Allows
Ecclesiastes reminds us:
- There will be seasons of laughter and dancing
- And also seasons of weeping and mourning
Christian faith does not erase these seasons;
it reorients them:
- In joy, we give thanks and remember the Giver.
- In sorrow, we lament and cling to the God who remains.
Trying to force constant visible cheerfulness:
- Denies the wisdom of Ecclesiastes,
- Flattens the emotional life God designed.
B. God’s Sovereignty Over Every Season
Later, Ecclesiastes says:
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart,
yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
—Ecclesiastes 3:11
We don’t always see how a specific season—especially a painful one—
fits into God’s beauty and plan.
But we trust:
- He is wise over every “time to weep” and every “time to laugh.”
- None of these seasons are outside His care.
6. Why This Paradox Matters Today
A. It Gives Permission to Feel and to Trust
Many Christians quietly carry shame over their sadness:
- “If I really trusted God, I wouldn’t feel this way.”
- “Good Christians don’t get this discouraged.”
The paradox says:
- You can have real peace and joy in Christ,
- And still grieve, cry, and lament honestly.
You are not failing God when you:
- Weep over a loss,
- Groan under chronic pain,
- Wrestle with deep discouragement—
as long as you bring these things to Him, not away from Him.
B. It Protects You from Shallow Positivity and Bitter Despair
Two common distortions:
- Shallow positivity
- Denies or minimizes pain: “It’s fine, God is good,” while the heart is breaking and never really brought to Him.
- Bitter despair
- Concludes that suffering means God is absent or unkind.
The paradox of joy amid suffering offers a better way:
- Face pain honestly,
- Lament deeply,
- Yet cling to the God who promises:“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
—Hebrews 13:5“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us
an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
—2 Corinthians 4:17
C. It Reframes Hard Seasons as Places of Growth
If James and Paul are right, then:
- Seasons of suffering—though we do not seek them—
can become places of profound spiritual growth.
God often:
- Teaches us to pray in the dark,
- Deepens our compassion for others’ pain,
- Loosens our grip on this world,
- Strengthens hope in the world to come.
Charles Spurgeon, who knew much depression and illness, said:
“I have learned to kiss the wave
that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”
He did not love the wave; he loved the Rock
to which the wave drove him.
7. Holding Peace, Joy, Suffering, and Lament Together
So how do we live this paradox practically?
- Name your pain honestly before God.
- Use the language of the Psalms.
- It is biblical to say “How long, O Lord?”
- Ask boldly for relief and help.
- Pray for healing, deliverance, provision, reconciliation.
- Remember the deeper story.
- Christ suffered and rose; your story will follow the same pattern.
- Present suffering, future glory (Romans 8:18).
- Look for God’s work in the trial.
- Ask, “How are you refining my faith?
What are you teaching me about yourself?”
- Ask, “How are you refining my faith?
- Anchor yourself in promises.
- “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted…” (Psalm 34:18)
- “Nothing…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)
- Walk with others.
- Share your burdens (Galatians 6:2).
- Receive and give comfort with the comfort you’ve received (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).
8. A Final Word of Hope
Jesus Himself is the clearest picture of this paradox:
- He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).
- Yet He spoke of “my joy” being in His disciples (John 15:11).
- For “the joy that was set before him,” He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2).
In Him, you are invited to live as:
- Someone who weeps honestly,
- Laments faithfully,
- Yet knows a peace that passes understanding
and a joy that no one can take away (John 16:22).
One day, this paradox will end:
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more,
neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,
for the former things have passed away.”
—Revelation 21:4
Until that day:
- Expect both tears and joy,
- Practice both lament and praise,
- And trust that your Father is using every season—
even the darkest—to make you “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
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