Day 3 – God is Turning Our Mourning into Joy

Psalm 90:15

NIV TPT NKJV

15 Make us glad for as 15 We’ve been 15 Make us glad according

many days as you have
afflicted us,
for as many years as
we have seen trouble.
overwhelmed with grief; to the days in which You
come now and have afflicted us,
overwhelm us with The years in which we
gladness. have seen evil.
Replace our years of
trouble with decades of
delight.

Day 3 Reflection

Suffering, grief and affliction are real in our Christian lives. God did not promise us
a life without any trouble but He promised to be with us and in His Word, He
encouraged His disciples that He has overcome the world. There are seasons in our
lives when we see God giving gladness for our sorrow. Here, Moses petitioned for
God’s joy and delight for the days and years of affliction, grief and trouble that God’s
people have gone through.

• Read and meditate on Jeremiah 31:13 and Psalm 30:11-12.

• Sometimes, if we are honest with ourselves, there are some long-standing

problems and troubles in our lives that have somewhat made us difficult to
believe for any breakthrough even though our hearts longed for God to answer
our prayers. Spend time in His Presence and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to our
hearts to believe and awaken hope again. God does not reject us if we come
sincerely before Him – “Lord I believe, help my unbelief!”

• One example of how God turned a person’s mourning into joy in the Scriptures
is the story of Job’s life when God “reversed and restored His fortune”. His turning
point came when He prayed for his friends! We know that his friends were not
very helpful nor encouraging – but when instead of bitterness, he responded in
faith and love to pray for his friends (those who hurt us, use us, betray us, spoken
nasty things about us, etc), God began restoration in his life.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to your hearts if there are any grudges and
unforgiveness to release to Him and to begin to pray for any of our friends that
God will forgive them and bless them.

• Take time to linger in His Presence and to ask the Holy Spirit the specific areas
which He wants to release joy and delight in your life.