Real joy isn’t something that just happens to you. It is not dependent on your circumstances or situation. True joy is a choice. You choose to dwell in joy. Now, before you start coming at me yelling “That’s impossible.” Let me explain.
You Are In Control of Your Joy
In John 14: 1 Jesus says to his disciples the night before His crucifixion – Do not let your hearts be troubled. Yep, you read correctly. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Jesus was going to be crucified and His friends were going to have to watch. Anyone would agree what was going to happen to Jesus was very troubling. Yet, Jesus commands His disciples to not let their hearts be troubled. The key word here is let. Jesus was telling his disciples that they had the power to control how they would react when the troubling time came. They had the power to let their hearts be troubled or to not let their hearts be troubled.
This is something that many of us do not realise – we have the ability to choose how we respond to our circumstances. We can either respond with anger and cursing or with praise and rejoicing. We can choose to dwell in trouble or dwell in joy.
But before we can talk about how to do this, let’s straighten up a few things about joy.
Joy – It is not Dependent on Your Circumstance
Joy is not dependent on your circumstance. You can feel joyful in any situation. You can be joyful whether you have received a raise or not and whether you’ve been given a gift or not. In fact, if you are experiencing true joy you will be joyful even in tribulation. What!!? you shout. No way! But it’s true! If you look in Philippians 4:4 you will see this truth. In this passage of scripture, Paul, writing whilst in prison, tells his disciples to “Rejoice in the Lord, always.”
He says always, not rejoice in the Lord when things are going well or when you’ve witnessed a miracle. Always. He himself rejoiced in the Lord regardless of his circumstances as can be seen by his actions in Act 16:25; he praised and sang hymns to the Lord whilst he was in captivity. He could have chosen to wallow in misery and self pity because he was being unjustly persecuted; he was sitting in a prison after having been whipped and beaten. But he didn’t. You see, with joy you look past your circumstance and situation. That is what Paul did. Paul was not basing his joy on his circumstance or situation. His joy had nothing to do with what he was going through, but everything to do with God.
Joy Is All About God
The reason Paul was able to be so full of joy despite being in prison was because he chose to have his mind where Isaiah 26:3 says we should have it – on God. That is the answer to how we to can constantly be dwelling in joy.
Paul chose to look at God and not His situation, and so he was able to rejoice because the Lord was his joy, not his circumstance. Paul was more focused on the fact that Christ was getting glory because of his imprisonment, rather than on the imprisonment itself. (Philippians 1:18) It should be the same for us. We should not look to our situation but to God and His glory.
Our joy should not come from what is happening to us or in the world because both change so often. If we base our joy only on good circumstances we are bound to lose our hold on it, because good circumstances come and go. But God? He doesn’t. He is steadfast, ever present and always good, regardless of what is going on in our lives. If we choose to keep our minds on this truth, we will keep our joy.
You Have Joy In You
Now we can talk about how to keep joy. One thing that will help you be joyful, is knowing that you already have joy in you.
When you are born again you have the Holy Spirit living within you, this means that you also receive all the fruits Spirit, (Galatians 5:22-23) and one of those fruits is …joy. Therefore, joy already dwells in you, all you have to do now is draw it out from you in faith. Did you get that? No one is going to do it for you. You must choose to draw it out. You will not experience joy until you decide that you want to and then do something about it.
Now, here are three ways you can do that.
- Declare That You Are Joyful
As I mentioned before, when you are born again you already have joy in you as one of the fruits of the spirit and all you have to do is draw it out. But how do you do that? Declare that you are joyful.
Now you may not necessarily believe you are joyful or feel joyful but when you begin to declare this truth it becomes true in your life. The declaration needn’t be something lengthy or complicated, just a simple “I have joy in me” or “I am joyful in Christ Jesus” will do. Just try declaring these statements out loud and with conviction, now. Can you see how you actually begin to feel joyful? That is because the words we speak have power; they have the power to impact how we and others feel. In this case, they have the power to make you joyful.
Another good way you can dwell in joy is by meditating.
- Meditate on Joy
When I say meditating, I mean going over scripture in your mind; constantly thinking over what you have read. Verses about joy, praise and thanksgiving are a great place to turn. (Nehemiah 8:10, Psalm 30:5, Zephaniah 3:17) Meditating on these words will have a similar effect on you as declaring that you are joyful. As you meditate on these joy-filled verses your mind will also gradually become more joy-filled and it will be much easier to rejoice.
- Be Of Good Cheer
The final thing you can do to is exactly what Jesus instructs us to do in John 16:33
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Do you notice something here? This verse has the same undertones as John 14:1 where Jesus says “Do not let your hearts be troubled” but this time Jesus is saying “Be of good cheer.” However, He is still telling his disciples that they have the choice to be of good cheer. Not because times on earth are going to be peaceful, but because He has overcome the world.
Jesus understood that His disciples would be troubled by His death and crucifixion and they would likely be emotionally affected by this. So He tells them not to focus on the situation, but on Him and the fact that He is victorious. He calls us to do the same. We must choose to be of good cheer not because things are looking great but because we know that our God is great.
Before I close I would like to leave you with a phrase that my mother often speaks to me and that is – “Do not trade your joy”.
This phrase emphasises what I have been saying about being in control of your joy. In the same way that we have the power to let or not let our hearts be trouble, to be or not to be of good cheer; we have the power to trade or not trade our joy. Trading our joy means choosing to be sad or worried over rejoicing in the Lord. But we must not trade our joy, we must choose to hold on to it regardless of what is happening in the world.
Our joy, ultimately, comes from the Lord-nowhere else. Remember this and then no matter what happens in this wild world you will always have a heart full of eternal joy.
