joy

"Pain does not mean we have to lose our joy! There are times and seasons, times when we have sorrow -- but if that lasts too long, if joy does not return, something is out of balance.

Or something has to be cast off: Often we go through periods of "aridity," when we can't shake what seems like bad luck, and sometimes it's because we forget to do what Jesus taught and command oppressing spirits out of us. We get trapped by our blindness. We forget to cast away darkness that strips us of joy and we forget that in the perspective of eternal life there is no "calamity" on earth that warrants hopelessness."

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