There is sorrow. The goal is gladness. God’s plan is gladness. He’s getting you to gladness.

I’ve started reading Hind’s Feet on High Places again. The high places are a place of joy and freedom. Much Afraid has a companion of sorrow to help her get to the high places. The sorrow comes before the joy. You can’t have the joy of forgiveness unless you’ve understood the sorrow of your sin.

My husband and I come into the high places in a few places in our lives. Our money is one of them. We gave it all up to the Lord and lived in poverty, relying on the Lord to meet every need. He did. Now we live in abundance, still knowing we’re relying on the Lord. We couldn’t have really learned to rely on the Lord when we had abundance unless we had really had to rely on Him during that time of seeming lack.

When we come to realize that we can’t be good, we can’t keep from our sin, we can’t always know and do the right thing, we have sorrow. We’re failures. We can’t please God. But part of the good news is that we can’t save ourselves! We’re not meant to. We have a Savior. Our Savior can save us! That is good news!

He allows us to be broken over our sin so we could see our need for salvation, our need for Jesus, our Savior. There’s a good and perfect reason for the sorrow. God doesn’t afflict willingly. It’s not His heart to cause sorrow. It’s His heart to bless and bring you into gladness. He knows sorrow is the way there. He is good and perfect in it all.

In Jeremiah 31:28, we read about how God watched over everything when Israel was being plucked up and broken down. It was under His watchful eye. It was only what was needful. Now, He would watch over their building up and planting.

He will be their God and write His word on their hearts. They will know Him. That’s a place of joyful, unending gladness.