From Weeping To Joy

From Weeping to Joy

When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. Psalm 84:6

IF YOU’VE EVER GONE THROUGH a wilderness season—and virtually every believer does—you know how frustrating it can be. When you experience losses, feel stuck, long for greater fruitfulness in a spiritually dry and barren land, or are desperate for opportunities to come along, you may have a hard time even praying at all, much less praying in faith. Even so, God has encouraging promises for you to cling to. He will turn your valleys of weeping into places of refreshing springs.

God doesn’t insist on bold, unshakable faith in promises like these. He understands the challenges of faith and the dynamics of dry and painful seasons. But even clinging to such promises with a feeble grip can be powerful. We can be confident that “those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy,” and even though “they weep as they go to plant their seed,” they will come back singing in the end (Psalm 126:5-6). There is an unmistakable relationship in Scripture between painful seasons of sowing and joyful seasons of reaping. Seeing that relationship operate in real life requires patience, insistence on his goodness regardless of what you might see, and at least a desire for faith, even when faith is hard to come by. But the God who cannot lie promises that your valleys of weeping will turn into pleasant oases in time.

The best response to a desert is to lean into God and ask him to make it fruitful, at least eventually. There’s nothing wrong with asking him for that fruitfulness soon, as long as you understand that his soon is not always the same as yours. But he does know your limits, values your dependence on him, honors your trust, and sees the end of your story even before it starts. He does not withhold good gifts forever for those who trust in him. He cultivates faith, sows good seed into the plowed ground of our lives, and tenderly, patiently oversees the growing process. Open doors of opportunity, restoration for losses, and refreshing springs of abundant life are part of your inheritance as a believer. Your times of joyful singing are coming.

God has a bottle and a book for his people’s tears. . . . What was sown as a tear will come up as a pearl.