Reclaiming Your Joy

Do you remember how happy you were when you first came to Christ? You couldn’t wait to tell others about Jesus. You felt a joy and an enthusiasm that you had never experienced before. That is the way God intends for us to live all the time. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11) Has something happened along the way to steal that joy? Has something robbed you of the excitement you once experienced as a Christian? Wouldn’t it be great to have that joy, that enthusiasm back in your Christian life again? I’d like to share some steps with you that God gives us in His Word which we can apply to our lives to help us regain that joy. But first, we need to find out what joy really is. 

We sometimes interchange the words “joy” and “happiness”, and we assume they have the same meaning. That is far from the truth. So before we find out how to get our joy back, we will look at what gives us joy and what gives us happiness.

Genesis 30:12-13 says, “And Zilpah, Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.” The Bible says Leah was happy. The word Asher means “Happy”. But, her happiness was dependent on her outward circumstances. If you read further, you will see that Leah wasn’t happy for long because later on she wanted another son. That’s the problem with happiness…it is dependent on our circumstances, therefore it will not last. When our circumstances change, so does our happiness, therefore happiness will never give us fulfillment or contentment in our soul. That’s why things or people can never bring us joy. 

Joy is based on something much deeper than circumstances. In 1 Peter 1:3-9, we are reminded where our joy comes from. Verse 6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials”. Why would someone rejoice when they are in the midst of trials? You can when you have faith in Someone Who is greater than your trials! When you place your faith in the One Who will see you through to the end, you can have joy. So your joy does not depend on the circumstances that surround you, but your joy is based on your relationship with Jesus Christ. Verse 8 says, “whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory”. 

But what happens when that joy seems to fade in our lives? And how can we get it back? I’m going to share with you 7 steps in God’s Word that I believe will help us to walk in the joy of the Lord once again, if we are willing to be obedient. It may be difficult in the beginning, but in the end, we can walk in the fullness of joy that God intends for us to have.

1. The first step to claim joy in the first place is that you must be born again. In John 3:1-3, Jesus is talking to a man named Nicodemus. You remember the story. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a very learned man. He knew the Word of God. He knew the law. He was a teacher of the law. Yet he came to Jesus calling Him Rabbi. This was a title of great honor or respect meaning Teacher or Master. Nicodemus had spent his whole life learning and teaching the Word of God, yet he bestowed this title on Jesus. He knew there was something special, something supernatural about Jesus, because he had seen the miracles He had performed. So, Jesus used this opportunity to explain to Nicodemus about the new birth. He used examples that Nicodemus would be familiar with such as the story of Moses and the serpent in the wilderness. The Bible doesn’t tell us, but I can imagine that Nicodemus walked away that day with a joy he had never before experienced in his life. He walked away with confidence that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God. If you don’t have that confidence today, this is the first step to becoming a joyful person. I believe that Nicodemus was certain in his heart that one day that no matter what else would ever happen on this earth, he knew he would be with Jesus in Heaven. Unless you are born again you cannot experience true joy.

2. The Apostle Paul tells us the 2nd step in restoring our Joy. He said that we must forget the past and look toward the future. In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul instructs us “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” My dad spent most of his life looking back to the past. Did you ever know anyone like that? “Well, when I was a kid…” or “back when I grew up…” I don’t know how many times I heard him talk about two things in his life, the fact that money was tight and he never got to finish high school, and the time when he fought in the war. Those two past experiences prevented Dad from ever doing very much with his life. He had a successful business for about 7 years, but other than that, he was an alcoholic, smoked about 3 packs of cigarettes a day, he had emphysema and lived on disability in his later years and then died of lung cancer. Isn’t that a terrible legacy for a person to leave? But the good news is that about a year and a half before he died, he gave his life to Jesus. For that time, Dad finally knew what real joy was because he could finally look forward to a bright future. But for all those other years, all he knew was regret. Dad could have done something about his lack of education. He could have gone back to school to get his GED. He could have put the war on the back shelf and moved forward with his life. But most of his life was spent in the past. You see it all the time. There are many Vietnam Veterans who came back from the war, and became homeless, sleeping on park benches, or living out in the woods someplace. But war isn’t what destroyed their destroyed their lives. The fact that they never moved beyond the war, that’s what destroyed their lives. People have bad childhoods. I was involved in prison ministry for several years, and I’ve heard horrible stories of sexual and physical abuse that inmates endured as children. When they grew up, they lived out the abuse of their childhood. Some went on to become abusers themselves. Others were angry at the world and committed terrible crimes. Some tried to hide from their pain with drugs and alcohol. There are close to 1.5 million incarcerated people in the United States. So much potential, yet so much waste! 

Paul said that he forgot the past and reached forth to the future. Paul had a horrible past. He willingly persecuted and killed Christians…innocent people. All they did wrong was to trust in Jesus as their Savior. Yet once he was born again, he walked away from his past and went on to do great and mighty things in the name of the Lord. You can’t change the past. All you have is today, and hopefully tomorrow. We don’t know how long the Lord will give us on this earth. But He doesn’t want us to waste it wallowing in the hurts and failures of yesterday. So, my Friend, let me ask you, what’s holding you back? Did someone once tell you that you were useless? Did someone laugh at you as a child, therefore you never tried again? Were you verbally, physically or sexually abused? You can have victory over the past. You can walk away from it and go forward in the name of the Jesus. He can heal the past and give you power to look for a wonderful future. But you have to open your heart and let Him in that place. You can’t keep that area of your heart hidden from the Lord. Allow Him to heal you and set you free and put His joy in your heart.

3. Forgive others and forgive yourself. Col. 3:13 tells us, “bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” First of all, we cannot experience joy if we are holding bitterness in our hearts toward someone else. We also cannot experience a close relationship with God if there is unforgiveness in our hearts. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE! Believe me, I know how hard it is to forgive someone who has hurt you deeply. I understand what it’s like to have that nagging feeling eating you up inside. I used to hold grudges forever. And I also know how hard it was when the Lord started dealing with that bitter heart of mine and required me to let it go. He was the only One who could cause that to happen. I could not forgive the hurt and pain that I felt by myself. But God knew I had to be set free. And now I know that it is possible to feel total freedom from hurt and bitterness in your heart. That doesn’t mean your feelings won’t get hurt anymore. But it means that you purpose in your heart that you’re not to hold on to it. You give it to God and you move on. As for the second part of that forgiveness, Matt. 22:36-40 deals with the New Testament law of love. Love God and love others. But verse 39 tells us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. The truth is if you can’t love yourself, you can’t love others. And if you can’t love others, you can’t love God. And you cannot truly love yourself if you harbor unforgiveness in your heart for deeds you may have done in the past. It’s like being stuck in quicksand. It is pulling you under and sucking the life out of you. You struggle to get free on your own, and it pulls you deeper into the muck. Those accusations you are hearing…they are from the pits of hell and they are totally contrary to what God says about you. The accuser says you are guilty and you will never be worth anything. God says you are His and He has sent His Son to set you free. Who will you believe, God or the devil? God has a plan for your life, but you will never fulfill His purpose until you allow Him to bring forgiveness into your heart. And only when you are fulfilling God’s purpose can you experience the true joy of the Lord.

4. Keep your priorities in order. Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” If I had to choose a favorite scripture, this one would probably be it. Priorities! How important is it that we keep our priorities in order? When we look at the story of Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness, we see over and over again what happened when the people put something or someone else before God. It may be a little more subtle with us, but we do the same thing. When we give God His proper place in our lives, basically things go well for us. But when we get our priorities out of order and we allow other things or other people to come before God, then we pay a heavy price, don’t we? Now that’s not to say that tragedy doesn’t happen even when we are doing everything right. Trials will come to everyone. It’s how our faith is tested. But even when life happens and sickness comes or tragedy strikes, we can still maintain that peace that passes understanding, and our joy can still remain intact. But if we allow other things or people to crowd God out of His rightful position as number one in our lives, nothing fits the way it should. Our kids begin to get out of line, our marriage starts to suffer, and our finances begin to take a nosedive. When we get our priorities out of order, we somehow think it’s more important to go to the beach or Disney World than to go to church on Sunday. Or we stay home because we have company, rather than invite them to join us to worship the Lord. We are more committed to reading the daily newspaper than to reading God’s Word every day. We find more pleasure in chatting with our friends online than retreating to our prayer closet to spend quality time talking with God. God’s intention is that He is to maintain first place in our lives; our families should be second, and then comes our work and our ministry, and then everything else fits in. Let me ask you…is God first in your life? Is your family second only to God? Has work become your purpose to get up every day? Work has its place, but it’s not everything. Has money become your goal in life? What things can you absolutely not live without? What are your priorities? It’s absolutely essential that we keep our lives in proper perspective, because when we keep our priorities in order, then joy will fill our souls.

5. Renew your mind and control your thought life. Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” When you were born again, you became like a brand new spiritual baby. But even though you became a new creation, your mind still operated in the same old ways. Your thoughts, your actions, your desires, your temptations were the same. The only way to grow into spiritual maturity is to allow God to change your thinking. As you read God’s Word and spend time in the presence of the Lord and other believers, you begin to take on Christ-like qualities. The Bible is to your spirit what food is to your body. If you think hearing the pastor’s sermons even three times a week is enough, you are mistaken. Even Sunday School, is not enough. You need to allow His Word to become life in you. As His Word begins to live in your heart and you learn Who He is and what He wants you to know, your thoughts will be different, your actions will be different, your life will be different. People will begin to wonder what there is about you that makes them enjoy being in your company. You will begin to notice the difference in yourself. The things that are important to God will begin to become important to you. He will change you from the inside out. Phil. 4:8 contains so much value for our lives if we can just get hold of it. It tells us to think on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, things of virtue, praiseworthy things. Not only do we need to be filled up with the Word of God, we also need to take control of our thoughts. You know, Satan can only plant thoughts in your mind, it’s up to you whether you dwell on them or not. I would ask you to call to mind some of the things you have allowed yourself to think about just today. Were they Godly thoughts? Were they pleasant thoughts? Do they fall in line with this scripture? We need to pay attention to the things we think about. That’s the stuff that gets into our spirit and then it will show up in our lives. It can develop negative thought patterns, and then our thoughts will rob us of our joy.

6. Measure all things in light of eternity. I would ask you to take the time to read the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 13:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (verses 1-13)

In reading this scripture, what do you think the most important thing in this world is? Is it fame, fortune, houses, jobs? Is it diamonds or gold? Of course not! Think about this…the only two things we have on this earth that will be there in eternity are love and people. So then, where should we be investing our lives? Loving people, right? Isn’t that what Jesus did? There is a saying that goes, “We should love people and use things…not the other way around.” Isn’t that how we want to live our lives? 

7. And then that leads us to the last step in this lesson…be a blessing by serving others. Please read with me in Matthew 25:31-46:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

If no other scripture in the Bible ever touched your heart, this one should. Verse 40 says, “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”. Do we really want to see our loved ones in Heaven? Do we have time to spend with them, and to pray for them? Is it so important for us to have that second or third job that we would sacrifice our family and our friends? Could we spare an afternoon cooking a meal for that family down the street that just moved in? Maybe God’s been speaking to your heart to go to that women’s shelter and offer to help out once a week, or teach a Bible study at a nursing home? There’s no greater joy in the world than to be a blessing to others. God intended that we serve one another, and the best thing about it is that when we serve with the motive of blessing someone else, we get blessed more that we can imagine.

Now it’s your turn. Have you lost your joy? When you are in your quiet time with the Lord this week, check out your own heart. Is there something you need to take care of in order to get your joy back? The most important question you need to face of course is, “have you been born again?” If not, there is no other step you can take to receive joy until that one is taken care of first. If you are born again, what about your past? Do you need to let it go and get on with life? Check your heart about forgiveness…toward others and yourself. Is that an area you need to give to God? Are your priorities in order…do you put God above everything else in your life? What about your family, your job or ministry? Are they where they need to be in your list of priorities? Are you feeding on God’s Word daily, and do you take charge of your thought life, to make sure the things you allow yourself to dwell on are pleasing to God? Do you keep a proper perspective on things…do eternal things come first? And are you living every day of your life to be a blessing to others? Remember, only two things on earth will be with us in Heaven…love and people. 

Do yourself a favor, keep a checklist about how you are doing at maintaining your joy. There is no shortcut. If you want to walk in that “joy unspeakable and full of glory”, God will need to help you get there.