Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is…joy…
Most mornings when I wake up, I am excited. I’m excited about a fresh new day and the fact that I’m still alive here with my husband and my children. I’m excited about the events on my calendar, the creative work I have in front of me, and the opportunity to enjoy my babies at playtimes and worktimes and mealtimes. I can’t wait to read or hear God’s Word and to see what He has for me that morning, and to make that hot tea for the clay mug that will snug between my hands. I look forward to another day of dreaming and planning and hoping, and all of this excitement spurs my practices in the morning to get ready for it all.
Yet I also carry about a wee bit of trepidation. I cannot possibly know everything the day will hold, and part of my morning involves reading and listening to the world’s news and events. Many mornings I also fold heartbreak into my excitement, and with that, fervent prayer and more practice of my memory verses so that I might meditate on them when I am gripped by fear or anxiety. I remind myself that with all of the glory of life and beauty there is intermixed within it, on this side of the veil, the garbage of sin and death.
There is a real difference between understanding and living within the dichotomy of living within the glory and garbage, and being in a season where in every morning wake-up, joylessness robs you of perspective and hope.
If despair is your constant companion, please go back and read this series. And ponder what you read. And put into practice anything you know you need to do, one step at a time. Each of those steps are life-changing! If gumming up the interest or effort to do anything at all is elusive, then let me plead with you to speak with a Biblical counselor, today. Sometimes you just need someone else who loves the Lord and trusts the eternal and effectual Truth of God’s Word to help you manage the walk through life.
When the Joy is Gone part 1
When the Joy is Gone part 2
When the Joy is Gone part 3
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
This is one verse that shows itself most plainly when tragedy strikes, when depression sets in, when life generally simply does not go the way we are indoctrinated to believe it “ought” to go. What comes out of you when you are pressed in any difficulty truly reveals what is within you, whether hope and faith in the sovereignty and sufficiency of God, or idolatry and in following what was right in your own eyes and heart. For there is a big difference between understandable and reasonable sadness and grief due to the circumstances of living in a sin-stained world, and a sorrow that grows into sinful actions and behaviors that ultimately adds even more layers of sorrow upon sorrow.
What you need, what I need, at the end of the day (at the beginning of the day!), is endurance and faith, the desire and heartfelt and Holy Spirit stubbornness, if you will, to trust in the sovereignty of God in all things, and to look to Him for sufficiency in all things, especially in the difficulties we face. We need to discern and expose the wolves within the flock of the church, the ones who lead us astray from that trust with their ear-tingling teachings that we are meant to be healthy and prosperous (by the world’s standards), and that we are never meant to suffer sadness, disappointment, difficulty, grief, illness, pain, poverty or persecution. We need to study David and Elijah and Moses and Peter and Paul and John, and ask ourselves, “What drove their lives more than anything else?” We need to study the Scriptures, not simply peruse them for fleeting minutes at a time. John Piper, via Instagram, recently posted “Satan devotes 168 hours a week trying to deceive you. Do you think you can maintain a renewed mind with a ten-minute glance at God’s book once a day?” We need to abandon those sins we hold dear, choose gratitude, and actively do those activities we already know we should be doing (like getting enough sleep and nourishing our bodies).
Do you feel like the joy is gone? Understand that God hasn’t left you; HE isn’t gone. Although He never promises deliverance from our problems this side of heaven, He does walk through the fire with you. Will you trust Him? Will you want His glory more than your own happiness, peace, comfort, and pleasure? Habakkuk 3:18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
I recently heard the speech that Elizabeth Elliot gave at the 1983 Christmas Conference in Kansas City. It is well worth your time to hear it. In it you can not only hear her steadfastness of faith, but her very loving exhortation for us to do the same.
May we all reflect the joy in our hearts, given to us by Christ, all the days of our life, and thereby never have cause to say “the joy is gone.”
Psalms 35:9 And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD…
Blessings,
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