JOY IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING –

Joy in the Midst of Suffering

Pastor Calvin Cook,

December 16, 2025

The last few weeks have been a very interesting time for me. From dealing with some of my own physical, mental, and spiritual battles while trying to understand the why, has brought me to the place I and all of us need to be at the center of God’s will.

In the midst of all of this I found a new understanding to this the third week of Advent and a focus on Joy. How in the world can I focus on Joy when I feel like a wrenched out wash cloth in all of the ways that I mentioned earlier – physically, mentally, spiritually. This is when the Holy Spirit spoke the truth of Romans 5:1-5 into my moment, my day, and my life.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5 (NIV)

Joy is not the first word we would naturally associate with suffering. Pain presses in, uncertainty weighs heavy, and hope feels distant. Yet Paul boldly declares that we rejoice not because suffering is good, but because God is at work within it. Suffering, when placed in God’s hands, is never wasted.

These words of Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit were written when Rome was the supreme authority, there was no other earthly government or authority that was more powerful at this time. But there was God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with a Holy dominion over everything especially those who called upon the name of Lord, were saved and had received the holy fire of the Holy Spirit. This completely changed the game and gave the followers and beloved of God a great joy, that they had something to give them hope and peace bringing great joy.

Isaiah gives us a sobering image of what faithful obedience can look like:

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7).

This prophecy points to Christ, the Suffering Servant, who walked the path of pain with quiet trust in the Father. Jesus did not avoid suffering; He entered it fully, showing us that obedience and suffering are not signs of God’s absence, but often the place where His redemptive work is most clearly revealed.

Scripture reminds us that as followers of Christ, we too may feel like lambs led into hard places—misunderstood, weary, vulnerable. Yet Romans 5 assures us that suffering leads somewhere. It produces endurance when we choose not to quit. Endurance shapes character when we remain faithful. And character gives birth to hope—a hope that “does not disappoint,” because it is rooted in God’s love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Joy, then, is not denial of pain. It is confidence in God’s process. It is the quiet assurance that even now—especially now—God is forming something eternal within us. The cross came before the resurrection, but it was not the end of the story.

Today, if you are suffering, remember this: you are not abandoned. You are being shaped. Like Christ, your obedience in the valley is producing a hope that will stand. And in that truth, even in suffering, joy can and will be found.