Monday | 29 December 2025
The fellowship of Christ’s travail is painful. As Paul observed, ‘Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it’. Heb 12:11. This can be a time of weeping that endures as though ‘through the night’. However, joy comes ‘in the morning’. Psa 30:5. This joy belongs to what is made new, which has been brought forth in our life and understanding.
The word of the messengers, which is a light to our path, reminds us that travail and restoration are to be a daily and lifelong reality for us. We note, in this regard, the words of Isaiah, who declared, ‘The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!” ’ Isa 21:12. As we have just considered, ‘the night’ speaks of our fellowship in Christ’s death and burial. ‘The morning’ is the light of a new day in which we walk by resurrection life.
As disciples, we are awakened each morning by the Spirit to hear the word of Christ as He teaches us our obedience as a son of the Father. Isa 50:4. We understand that walking in the light of this word, with Christ, is our fellowship in His death and burial. That is, our morning is followed by an evening. We are not rebellious but, in the fellowship of Christ’s death, we embrace the chastening of the Lord for our peace. Moreover, we accept the blows to our reputation as fellowship in His bruising for our iniquity. Isa 50:5‑6. Isa 53:5. As surely as morning follows evening, we receive the light of life for our obedience, as the dawning of a new day. This is our expectation as those who have taken Christ’s yoke upon us.
Further Study:
Psalm 30
References:
Heb 12:11
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Psa 30:5
For His anger is but for a moment, His favour is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Isa 21:12
The watchman said, ‘The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!’
Isa 50:4-6
The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
Isa 53:5
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.