Monday – Gospels and Acts

Reading – Acts 5

Highlight Verse:

“The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.”
‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭5‬:‭41‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Joy flourishes regardless of how crazy your situation may be.

What a ride Peter and the apostles must had been going through.

Through their preaching, people were healed, many found forgiveness, and Jerusalem was changing.

Then they were arrested again and thrown in jail.

But an angel set them free.

But Peter and the apostles with him were arrested again.

This time they ended up flogged for preaching about Jesus.

And that is when the went home rejoicing.

How deep of a faith and radical of a joy did that take?

The joy not only overcame the pain, but it thrived because of it.

Now, I think they would have been quite joyful without the pain.

But the pain confirmed the strength of their faith.

I would like to think that they received healing for their injuries too, though I can only guess that happened.

Have you ever had a situation where you were joyful despite pain?
What about because of your pain?