Rejoicing in Trials?

The past few days for me have been very stressful and I was feeling very discouraged and confused. I had a bad situation at work on Friday that really left me with a lot of anxiety throughout the weekend and into Monday, until I was able to see the result of the bad situation was not anywhere near as devastating as I thought it would be. (Sorry to be so cryptic, but since many of you know the people in my life, I don't want to give too much away to respect their privacy)

I showed up to church Sunday morning, and I could only sing the last song of worship. The one before that I tried, but I couldn't find it in me to praise God. I wasn't mad at Him or blaming Him. I've been through enough to know that He knows what's best for me and that I need to trust in Him. But nevertheless, the ball of tension in my chest wouldn't go away and I couldn't bring myself to genuinely sing songs of praise.

1 Thesalonians 5:18 says to give thanks in all things. In 2 Cor 12:10 Paul says he delights in trials and sufferings because in his weakness, he is strong. And Romans 5:3 says we should rejoice in our suffering because they produce perseverance, character and hope.

I had each of these verses running through my head this weekend, and I realized just how difficult it really is to praise God and rejoice when I am so anxious and worried and afraid of the road He is leading me down. It is so easy to speak these verses to someone else enduring a trial (which I have, recently) but I hadn't really comprehended how difficult it is to actually live it.

I do think this caused me to really rely on God's strength, and for that I am grateful. Things turned out so much better than I had anticipated, and in the process God showed me a lot of encouragement and support from others that I really needed and that helped me see God's hand at work. While the weekend held an undercurrent of stress which put a damper on some very fun activities, it was also a weekend where I felt very, very loved by a lot of wonderful friends. So, I guess God didn't forget about me after all. :)