Sorrow into Joy
“Rivers of water run down my eyes, because men do not keep Your law.” (Psalm 119:136)
Many today are using wisdom to make themselves money, rather than to make themselves holy.
“My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man,
and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of His holy words. For
the land is full of adulterers; for because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the
wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, and their might is not right. “For both prophet and
priest are profane.” (Jeremiah 23:9-11)
“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”
(Lamentations 1:12)
“And because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12) What a
sad, sad verse. Jesus said, “All of these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:8) One of the
“these” He mentioned is, “For many shall come in My name, saying, “I am Christ, [that is anointed],
and shall deceive many.” (Matthew 24:5) Jesus was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
(Isaiah 53:5) Can Christ share His sorrow with you? Can He share His grief? Does God weep? Jesus
did! (John 11:35) He said if you’ve seen Me then you have seen My Father, for We are one. (John
14:9) Are you one with the Father? Jesus was, and He wept. There is a righteous sorrow that
produces the fruits of repentance, and a passionate love and zeal for God but it has nearly been
completely forgotten by this generation. (2 Corinthians 7:9-11) We weep for ourselves, wallowing in
our own misery, and all of our sorrow is centered on self. We live our busy lives pursuing happiness,
however, everyday in the U.S. alone a holocaust of 4,200 babies die, wars are escalating, people are
hooked on drugs and families are devastated by the addicts, there is no justice for the oppressed,
gangbangers are sending each other to hell every day, billions of children are sick from malnutrition
because greed has pulverized the church, and statistics tell us that every 60 seconds 100 people die,
most of them slipping into eternity apart from Christ. “Therefore hell has enlarged itself and opened its
mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall
descend into it.” (Isaiah 5:14)
Jesus said, “Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21) Then warning the
crowds He said, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall weep.” (Luke 6:25) If you’re not turning
the Father’s sorrow into joy, by rescuing the one’s He loves, you will weep later. Mainstream
Christianity is lukewarm today from a lack of godly sorrow.
Paul had continual sorrow in his heart. (Romans 9:1-3) In spite of all the weariness and toil,
sleeplessness, hunger and thirst; fasting, cold and nakedness; Paul’s sorrow came from his deep
concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:28) Paul’s life embodied reality.
Those who truly have been awakened by God’s Spirit have sorrow because the church is sleeping, and
greedy. We’re called to imitate God, but we follow the world. There’s no sorrow for the infestation of
sin that has infected the church and made her sick. Are we too blind to see the symptoms? No joy, no
peace, cold love, no sorrow for the lost, prayerlessness, no power, no holiness.
Does Satan laugh and rejoice when we assemble ourselves together? Or is he trembling in fear with his
gates shut as we unite in holiness and preaching to storm them? Does the devil know who you are?
There were some demons who said, “Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?” (Acts 19:14-15)
More importantly does God know who you are? He who loves God this one is known by Him. (1
Corinthians 8:3, Matthew 7:21-23) Love is not a feeling!
Are you grieved by the sympathetic attitude preachers have towards sin or are you comfortable with it?
The devil wants to destroy not those who are laughing, playing, and partying in church, but those who
are disturbed, weeping, preaching, and sleepless, because as they view the reflection of the church
today in the mirror of God’s word they see a mockery of Christ and an insult to the Spirit of Grace.
(Hebrews 10:26-29) They see preachers in tears and hear people beg for money to feed the poor and
reach the lost by using God’s word to convict people to give to their ministries, then they turn right
around and use God’s word saying I have all these luxuries, all these riches for myself because of the
blessing of Abraham!
Oh how precious it would be to the Lord Jesus if He could see a picture of a glorious church today. A
true expression of His heart!
The prophet Ezekiel saw this vision: the LORD had a man, who was clothed in white having a writer’s
ink horn at his side put a mark on the foreheads of all those who were sighing and crying for all the
abominations that were being done in the city. He told the same man to destroy the rest. (Ezekiel 9:4-
5) Are you marked?
Those whom we admire and esteem we become like, and those whom we love we strive to please.
What does the integrity of the church look like today? Who are we when no one is looking? Why is it
that when we find Christ we stop searching for Him?
People spend hours glued to television screens, video games and magazines. We condemned those
who made no room for Jesus in the inn, yet we make no room for the Son of God in our lives. Do you
push Him away with all the violence, profanity, and immorality contained in your TV programs and
movies. Are you dragging Jesus to the places you go to? He doesn’t enjoy listening to or watching
sin! He hates sin! He bled and died to destroy the power of sin!
The reason why there is a lukewarm church today and people lose their passion for God is because
they do not share Christ sorrow in their hearts. The preachers lose the minority which is probably the
only remnant of a real church they have to keep the majority who mirror the world and have taken the
grace of God in vain.
Sorrow is a blessing from God’s heart to your heart. It is His gift for empowering us to protect and
treasure the anointing which we have received from Him! Can you feel the anguish in His heart? If
you can, you will become holy as He is holy. This anguish will shape you into a person whom He
esteems. You will set yourself apart from those things which created the anguish in His heart, and do
those things that turn it into joy.
We always want our sorrow turned into joy, but are we doing about turning His sorrow into joy? Peter
said we can cast our cares upon the Lord because He cares for us, but can Christ share His sorrow with
you because you care for Him? Jesus ascended into Heaven and sat down, the greatest comfort for
Him, is when we continue to do all that He began both to do and teach. “For in much wisdom is much
grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:18) This sorrow and grief
will lead you to the cross, and in bearing this you will touch and be touched by God’s heart in a way
that will ignite a devotion to Him so radical that you will live as Jesus lived and love as He loved. It is
in this sorrow and grief that the deep within us connects to the deep within God, and there we find
wisdom far beyond the ways of men, and far beyond the minds of mainstream Christianity; it is in this
sorrow and living that we find the wisdom of God’s love, the wisdom of the cross.