There’s Joy, Yes, There’s Joy in My Heart!

Do you ever ask yourself, “What do I have to be joyful for? My day is filled with discouragement and heartache. My children don’t do what I ask them to do. I’m not happy with my job; and on top of that, I just found out that a friend of mine has terminal cancer.” In the midst of trials, where does true joy come from?

All of us have to deal with daily trials that are very difficult, and all of these issues can bring us down. So how do we bring joy to our lives? We don’t, but Christ does.

Jesus Christ is with us Christians on our best days, and He is with us on our worst days! He offers the gift of joy. But accepting it is a choice that all of us have to make.

Joy is a gift and a choice

In Luke 10, the 70 disciples that Christ sent out to the various towns to teach God’s way of life were filled with joy and excited about doing the work of God! And then, in verse 21, Christ was filled with the joy of God’s Holy Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

None of us can conjure up joy in our lives or will it to happen. We can’t ask others for it and receive it from them. God has given Christians the joy of His Son working with us and helping us fight our battles and moving us forward, but we have got to choose to live and share that joy with others. It is a choice! And no one can take that joy of Christ from us!

Christ has given us access to His joy now because of His victory over this physical existence. We have the absolute power of God’s Spirit, and God helps us to live a life full of joy only by His Spirit—we know that it is the second fruit or gift of God’s Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22.

The joy that we have because of God’s love for us is a way of thinking—a way of life—and it is God’s gift to us that He requires we share with others. It is not a feeling that ebbs and flows with how we are feeling at a given time or day. We will never have true godly happiness until we make the choice to live a life that is abundant and full of joy. It is a difficult thing to do, but with Christ, we can do it and live a fuller life now because of it.

“Joy in the God of my salvation”

In Habakkuk 3, the prophet poured out his heart to God in prayer and asked that God have mercy. Habakkuk said that no matter what happened to him, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (verse 18).

It is interesting that Habakkuk’s intense and energetic prayer was written to be accompanied by musical instruments. Habakkuk’s style gives me some insight into the prayers that I should have with God.

It reminds me of the most intense and energetic prayer by Christ to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was about to face one of the most painful and torturous deaths any human being has ever gone through. He prayed with such intensity that “His sweat became like great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44)—but He knew that His sacrifice would lead to the greatest joy any human being could ever experience.

He talked about the reward for enduring persecution in Luke 6:23, where He said, “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven.”

Leap for joy!

The joy of Christ is ours to have now if we choose to live that joy, share that joy and be willing to ask God to help us to “leap for joy.” We need to focus daily on the words of King David, who we know is called a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Consider how many times he exclaimed and exhorted us all to live God’s joy (Psalms 5:11; 16:11; 32:11; etc.).

If we live the joy of Christ now and share that joy with others by what we do for them and how we treat them, then we will see God as He is. God is love. He is also full of joy and goodness and mercy. Since we know these things, then we are to do them.

Living this joy of Christ every day will help all of us see the ultimate joy at Jesus Christ’s return, and then we can forever “rejoice in that day and leap for joy!”

Dave and Laura La Ravia have four children and live in Madison, Wisconsin. They attend the Beloit, Wisconsin, congregation, of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.