You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
– John 16:20
Just soak in that promise today, that for all who are in Jesus, sorrow will not be the end of the story. It will be a reality.
John 16:20 Promises Our Sorrow will Turn to Joy
will be times, days, months, years where you are full of sorrow, sorrow-full. But one day your sorrow will turn into joy. You are never without hope when you are in Jesus. I was talking just this last week with a brother originally from Romania and about a year ago, he and his wife of 44 years and built their dream house together to retire in. And right as the house was being finished, she died very unexpectedly, suddenly. Had a headache one day and days later was with Jesus. He described the fullness of sorrow he felt, just not wanting to go on with life at all for months.
And then he told me this story about how he met via FaceTime when he was hanging out with some of his family also from Romania. They were FaceTiming with a pastor’s wife in Romania whose husband, after pastoring for many years and marriage for decades, had died and they ended up FaceTiming, then talking. And fast-forward, he’s showing me this picture of his soon-to-be wife with a smile on his face.
I share that with some hesitancy because I don’t know how every story is going to end up. And I don’t presume that every story within just a little over a year is going to lead to that kind of joy. But I do know this, for all who are in Jesus, you will be sorrowful, John 16:20. But one day your sorrow will turn into joy and you can bank your life on that for eternity.
John 16:20 Encourages Us to Look Forward with Faith
And I want to encourage you, especially if you’re in the full of sorrow kind of moment right now, your sorrow will turn into joy as you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He promises this to you. So God, I pray for all those who are full of sorrow right now listening to this and others, things are going great and a day is coming where fullness of sorrow will be there, that this would be hidden away in their heart, this promise, John 16:20.
Jesus, you sang, we will be sorrowful, but our sorrow will turn into joy. We praise you for that reality. We praise you that sorrow will not be the end of our story. In light of all you teach, in the book of John, even though we’ve been praying according to you’re the resurrection and the life. You love us for the fullness of love that is shared in the Trinitarian nature of who you are.
And you want your joy to be full in us, even Romans 5, so we rejoice and our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. God, I pray all of that over every one of us when we are full of sorrow, that we would also be full of hope, full of anticipation at present joy and full of realization of present joy that is ours that supersedes suffering and anticipation of ultimate joy, that our sorrow will turn into joy.
Praying for the Assamese People
And God, we pray for people who don’t know this truth, who live in all kinds of sorrow, and all kinds of specifically physical needs and challenges and trials in this world who don’t know their sorrow will turn into joy because they don’t know you, Jesus. God, we pray for the Assamese people of Bhutan, these people who grew up with no known followers of Jesus. Lord, please cause this joy and this confidence, this hope to spread to the Assamese people of Bhutan and all the peoples of the world. God, help us to live for this, that the nations might know that sorrow will turn to joy for all who trust in Jesus. We pray this according to your promise in John 16:20. In Jesus’s name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
