You know those times when everything hits the fan at the same time; when everything that could go wrong, does go wrong; when the pressure of life and work gets the better of you? Nothing feels good then. In fact, anything good seems so far away, you can’t even see it on the horizon. That’s when you know you’ve lost touch with the goodness of God. He’s still with you, but you forgot that. It’s actually your job to keep joy in your heart not His, even in the hard times.
The problem with keeping joy isn’t how to do it, it’s remembering to do it. Maybe you need to make a sticky note or have some memento that reminds you to check you joy level because it’s important to do for your spiritual strength. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit and His always with you, so it’s always yours to have. Always, even when life gets tough. So how do you do that?
Joy is easy when life is good. You can look at all the goodness around you and happily thank Papa for what He’s done. But the tough times, that’s when you need determination. Here’s what you do: think of what you’ve prayed for, all the promises of God that you haven’t seen fulfilled yet. There’s the source of your joy when you don’t feel it any other way. Jesus said, “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24) That means that all those things that you prayed for are on their way! Imagine that!
Just stop and think about all your prayers being answered today. What would it look like? How would it make you feel? That’s joy, my friend. Answered prayer is a ready source of joy and you just read that if you believe, it’s a done deal, so rejoice! Thank Papa for what He has already done even though you haven’t seen it yet. Remember that He’s outside of time. He answers when we pray, we just need to catch up to the reality.
Holding onto joy when times are tough will keep you from all manner of bad thoughts and decisions. It keeps you grateful and expectant. All you need to do is believe that when you pray, He will answer. As long as you know that, you’ll be singing everyday.