How To Be Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing

How to Be Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing (2 Cor. 6:10)

Paul the apostle wrote, We put not stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way, in great endurance, in troubles, hardships and distresses, in beatings, imprisonments and riots, in hardwork, sleepless nights and hunger, in purity, understanding, patience and kindness, in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love, in truthful speech and in the power of God with weapons of righteousness in the right hand in the left hand, through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report, genuine, yet regarded as imposters, known, yet regarded as unknown, dying and yet we live on; beaten and yet not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing." (2 Cor. 6:1-10)

Paul the apostle gives us a great example in word and deed of one who knew how to successfully use the sorrow in his life for God’s greater good and the complete fulfillment of the Lord’s will. Are you interested in learning how to do the same?

Consider some of the benefits of sorrow:

1. Sorrow helps us identify closer with Jesus Christ. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

When we understand the great sorrow that the Lord Jesus endured for us we gain a greater appreciation of His love for us.

The famous song says,

Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior.

2. Sorrow helps us gain a greater empathy for the hurts, pain and difficulties that others experience. People who empathize are more compassionate, kind and considerate of others problems and needs.

When I learned the benefit of sorrow it made me more sensitive to the concerns of others and prompted me to pray with greater fervency, diligence and detail.

3. Sorrow helps us mature in areas where we might have thought we were adequately developed. Grief tends to uncover areas of insensitivty that perhaps we have overlooked. When I am sorrowful it makes me more aware that I need to rejoice in my sufferings knowing that the Lord is making me more complete and perfect through these trials.

Bill Gaither wrote, "I have many tears and sorrows. I have questions for tomorrow. I have pain I never thought one could endure. But if I never had a problem. Never faced a real struggle. I’d never know what faith in God could do. Through it all. Through it all. I’ve learned to trust in Jesus. I’ve learned to trust in God... I’ve learned to depend upon His word."

4. Sorrow helps us to see God as we’ve never seen Him before. Job said, "I have hard of You by hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see You." (Job 42:5) Job’s great trials allowed him to get a closer and more complete of God’s character. Allow the trials you are passing through to give you a richer, fuller and more enrich view of the Holy One.

5. Sorrow does work in us that nothing else could accomplish. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better." (Eccl. 7:3) Those who do not allow sorrow to do its work, who deny it and resent it or trivialize or try to explain it away or blame it on someone else or their circumstances often remain shallow, immature and incomplete in Christ. Paul wrote, "But do not be like children, but speaking the truth in love, let us grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head even Christ." (Eph. 4:15)

6. Sorrow helps us understand other people better. When we pass through sorrow it gives us a much better understanding of others’ viewpoints and helps us relate to them better. Paul wrote, "He comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in affliction with the comfort that we ourselves receive from God." (2 Cor. 1:3,4) Allow your sorrows to make you a better teacher, preacher and counselor to those around you.

7. Sorrow helps you understand yourself better. Job learned about his misbeliefs and his failure to trust in the sovereignty of God through his trials. He wrote, "Lord, now I know you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted." (Job. 42:1,2) Job had to correct many misbeliefs about his right to success, prosperity and blessings. He had to learn that the Lord had the right to do whatever He wanted at any time as the Father knows best.

8. Sorrow helps us learn what Jesus meant when He said, "Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted." (Matt 5:6-8) Those who sorrow are often able to see how the Lord can use them in greater ways with more people and in deeper ways. Sensitive, carring and considerate people have often gained a merciful and compassion that was bourn out of the fiery furnace of trials. Those who mourn learn to be sorrowful for the same things that grieve the heart of God. They are quick to hate what is evil and to cling to what is good.