A Joy That Goes Through the Trial: Rejoicing in the Dead of Night

Introduction

For three Sundays now, Église CVV has been digging into the theme of joy: its source in God, the way the Holy Spirit produces it in us, and its relational side. For this fourth message, Naomie and Yann preach together, with one shared conviction: "joy is not a spiritual extra for those who happen to smile easily." It is not reserved for an elite. It is at the heart of what God wants for everyone.

Still, they point out a risk. By talking so much about joy, we could slide toward "a rather comfortable little theology": if I am close to God, filled with the Spirit and surrounded by healthy relationships, then suffering should have less and less hold on me. Yet the unexpected diagnosis, the loss, the breakup or the anxiety still come, even when we pray and know our Bible by heart.

Sometimes a second pain is added to the first, a more insidious one: "What did I miss? Why don't I have the peace I was promised? Is my faith failing?" The answer of this message is clear: nowhere does the Bible promise that being close to God makes you immune to suffering. It says something else, something stranger and more solid: joy and suffering can live in the same person at the same time, without one hiding the other.

Outline of the Message

1. Joy Is Not the Absence of Suffering

• The book of Habakkuk begins with a complaint. The prophet sees injustice and violence, and asks God: how long? Naomie admits that in 2026, sometimes all it takes is a look at the news for her joy to be weighed down.
• God's answer is startling: an army is on the march, not to defend Habakkuk, but the Babylonian empire that is about to invade the country and devastate everything. This is no distant possibility. It is an announced catastrophe.
• Habakkuk wrestles with this news, asks his questions and lets his fear and anger be heard without stifling them. Then he draws up a list: the fig tree will not blossom, the vine will bear nothing, the fields will yield no food, the sheep will vanish from the pasture (Habakkuk 3:17).
• To us, this list sounds poetic. At the time, it was terribly concrete: no harvest, no income, nothing left to set aside for winter. Today it would be an empty bank account, a job lost overnight: "the collapse of one's material security."
• It is at this very moment, not once the crisis is over, that Habakkuk writes: "yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!" (Habakkuk 3:18). This verse inspired the well-known song by Marcel Boungou, "Je veux me réjouir" ("I Will Rejoice"), and we are still singing it 26 centuries later.
• The text does not say "I'm fine anyway," or "it doesn't affect me that much." It says "I will" twice: a verb of the will.
• Paul, arrested, beaten and threatened, describes himself as "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (2 Corinthians 6:10). He neither hides nor plays down his sadness, and in the same sentence, from the same man, at the same moment, he says "rejoicing."
• Naomie tells of a "really hard" season of her life, when some mornings she could not get out of bed. In the middle of the darkness, something held on to her life: the joy called chara, which Ben had talked about in the first sermon of the series, a deep, lasting, inward state that does not depend on circumstances. That joy told her that what she was going through did not define her. One day she bounced back, "and my head came up out of the water."
• So the presence of pain does not mean there is something wrong with your faith, or that God has let you down. Biblical joy is a decision made in the middle of suffering, or a gracious gift from God that does not deny the hurt you are living through.

2. A Deep Joy, Not Necessarily an Exuberant One

• Must we smile at a funeral, or put on a show of enthusiasm because "a Christian is supposed to be happy"? No. Having set aside one false promise (faith makes you immune to suffering), we must not set up another: that faith forces you to "play-act happiness."
• Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). But a fruit is not a firework: a firework explodes all at once, and then only smoke is left. Fruit grows slowly, the tree takes root under the ground and lives through the seasons. In winter it seems to stand still, "but under the bark, the sap keeps flowing."
• Yann shares about the day of his baptism, 28 years ago. With no prior teaching on the subject, he received from the Spirit a joy that took root in his heart, far beyond the emotion of the celebration. Twenty-eight years later, despite difficult seasons, that joy is still there and gives him stability: "clearly not exuberant" in the tough times, but truly present, like a peace that makes no noise.
• He explains that he is not telling this to speak of some special talent or extraordinary strength: it is something received, something he benefits from.
• Paul carries a thorn in the flesh and begs God three times to take it away. The answer: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Joy is not a performance reserved for temperaments sturdier than average: it is a grace.
• If you are more reserved, with no striking experience to tell, your joy "is not second-class joy." It is the work of the Spirit in your heart. Some carry their story with precise words and memories, others in silence, and it is just as real.

3. Suffering, a Fertile Ground

• The Bible dares to go further: the trial itself can become ground where joy grows deeper than if there had been no trial.
• James writes to scattered Christians: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations" (James 1:2). He does not say "look on the bright side" or "grit your teeth until it passes." He says "all joy," to the point that we might wonder whether he had lost his mind.
• This text invites neither denial, nor positive thinking, nor stoicism. James describes a gaze that looks through the trial: we do not deny the pain, but we do not stop at it. It does not have the last word, "because we believe in a God who is extraordinary."
• Paul describes the chain reaction: "we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope" (Romans 5:3-4). It is neither a comfortable straight line nor a shortcut to feeling better.
• Naomie compares it to a muscle: at the gym, your muscle will not grow stronger if you lift polystyrene. It is often resistance, discomfort, "the weight of reality" that builds something solid.
• One essential clarification: a trial is not a punishment for something wrong you have done. Job and the victims of the tower of Siloam show this (Luke 13:4). What is at stake is rather Joseph's word to his brothers: "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20).
• For those who have given their lives to Christ, suffering becomes, and it is almost scandalous to say, a fertile ground. It is neither pleasant nor desirable, but the biblical examples show that it is.

4. The Joy That Sings in the Night

• Paul and Silas have just been beaten in public without a fair trial: "The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes off of them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods" (Acts 16:22).
• Their backs bleeding, they are thrown into the inner prison, "the prison of the prison," their feet locked in stocks, in a position that must have been painful.
• And there, "about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25). They did not wait for their miraculous release to sing: they did it in the dark, in pain, not knowing what would happen to them.
• For the other prisoners, the scene must have been strange: a little concert at the end of the corridor.
• Biblical joy does not wait for circumstances to improve before it shows itself. Its source is not circumstantial: "it does not depend on what is happening around us but on what lives within us."
• It is the same logic as Habakkuk facing the devastated fields, as Paul sorrowful yet rejoicing. And it is not reserved for extraordinary apostles: this joy can live in you in a hospital room or a waiting room, when bad news lands.

5. Jesus, for the Joy Set Before Him

• To see how far this logic goes, we have to go back to Jesus, the one who makes this duality possible. Hebrews 12:2 says that he, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame," did so for the joy that was set before him.
• The preachers take the time to repeat it: Jesus agreed to suffer the cross for the joy that was set before him. A verse that almost deserves a pause.
• When you are at the bottom of the pit, Jesus went through it first, to the extreme of the cross, and he opens the way so that we can live it in our turn. This joy is not always something to wrestle out of the struggle: it has been given to us, it is in us.
• Centuries earlier, Nehemiah had already said: "Don't be grieved; for the joy of Yahweh is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). In a trial, we often need strength, and that strength is found in the joy that is in God. It is not an extra for the days when everything goes well. It is what holds you up when everything else wobbles.

6. A More Honest and More Solid Invitation

• More honest, because you can stop pretending that your faith will keep you from suffering. More solid, because the joy everyone is looking for does not depend on the absence of pain: you can have it even in the pain.
• Nothing in this message should become pressure to pretend you are fine or to put on a smile you do not feel. Some carry this joy in silence, with deep strength and peace, and "it is no less valuable."
• The message ends with a time of prayer, open to those going through a difficult season, but also to those who simply want this chara joy. The prayer can be very simple: that Habakkuk's choice, "I will rejoice in the God of my salvation," would become possible for you today, even in a small way. "Let's not forget the image of the fruit: it grows."

Key Takeaways

• Being close to God does not make you immune to suffering, but joy and suffering can live in the same heart at the same time.
• Habakkuk's joy is an "I will": a decision made in the middle of the crisis, not after.
• Joy is a fruit, not a firework. It can be quiet, silent, and still be fully the work of the Spirit.
• A trial is not a punishment. It can become fertile ground where perseverance, proven character and hope grow.
• Jesus suffered the cross for the joy set before him, and the joy of Yahweh is our strength.

Personal Application

1. Have you ever thought that your suffering revealed a failing faith? What does this message change about that view?
2. In the difficult situation you are going through, what would your "yet I will rejoice in Yahweh" be?
3. Do you feel obliged to play-act happiness in front of others? Where could you be more honest?
4. Looking back, which past trial made perseverance or hope grow in you?
5. Like Paul and Silas, can you pray and praise God this week before circumstances change?

Verses Cited

• Habakkuk 3:17-18
• 2 Corinthians 6:10
• Galatians 5:22
• 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
• James 1:2
• Romans 5:3-4
• Luke 13:4
• Genesis 50:20
• Acts 16:22-25
• Hebrews 12:2
• Nehemiah 8:10

Frequently Asked Questions

Does being close to God protect you from suffering?

No. Naomie and Yann remind us that nowhere does the Bible claim that being close to God makes you immune to suffering. It claims something stranger and more solid: joy and suffering can live in the same person at the same time, without one hiding the other. Suffering is not a punishment either.

Must a Christian always wear a smile?

No. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5), not a firework. It grows slowly and can remain quiet, without exuberance. The preachers insist: faith does not oblige you to play-act happiness, and a joy lived in silence is not second-class joy.

What does Habakkuk 3:17-18 mean?

Habakkuk knows that the Babylonian army will devastate everything: no more harvests, no more flocks, no more security. It is at this very moment, not after the crisis, that he writes: "yet I will rejoice in Yahweh." This "I will," repeated twice, is a verb of the will: a decision made in the middle of suffering.