We all long for joy. It is something we all need because God designed us that way. But sometimes, even often, joy can be difficult to come by. Try as we may to receive it, joy can seem elusive. It feels slippery. About the time we think we have a grip on it, it slips away. But when we can find joy for a season, we discover the beautiful reality of joy. It makes life wonderful, and we begin to anticipate things that we might otherwise dread or avoid. How do we maintain this joy? Is there a secret sauce to being a consistent person of joy? In a sense, there is. The secret sauce of joy is God. To discover this special joy from God, we want to ask ourselves three questions: What is the biblical understanding of joy? How do we have joy in the Lord? What do we do when joy is hard to find?
What is the Biblical Understanding of Joy?
What does the Bible have to say about joy? Actually, the Bible says a whole lot about joy. The first thing to note is that there is a natural joy and a supernatural joy. Natural joy is what most people naturally have when joyful things happen, and they do not have it when something grievous happens. It depends on what happens. Natural joy is not necessarily a bad thing. God designed us that way. The problem is that because we are sinful and selfish, joy is hard to find, so we’re constantly looking for things to give us joy rather than the Lord.
Supernatural joy is gladness, even a delight in life that goes deeper than pain and pleasure. It is from the Lord. It is the gift of God and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Supernatural joy does not depend on circumstances. But because we’re human and life is complex, we can find ourselves looking to circumstances for our joy. This situation is complex because all believers in Jesus Christ experience a mixture of natural and supernatural joy. The problem is that when natural joy is nowhere to be found, we struggle to find it in the circumstances of life rather than from the Lord, which leads us to the second question.
How do we have Joy in the Lord?
We find in Philippians 3:1 and 4:4 the command to rejoice in the Lord. The question is, “How do we obey this command?” Let’s think about several ways the Bible shows us how to find this kind of joy. First, we can find joy in the Lord because of our salvation. When we think about our salvation, we realize that no matter what joy-stealing things may happen, we still have salvation, and everything will ultimately work out for the good because of his grace and power (Romans 8:28). The apostle Peter gives us this great truth I 1 Peter 1:7-9). “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
The second way we can find joy in the Lord is through his presence. It is a joyful thing to know that the Lord is near. But what does the presence of God mean? When the Bible speaks of the presence of God, it does so in two ways. The first is the universal presence of God. God is all-present. He is present everywhere at every moment. God is not bound by space or time. That is a glorious truth, but it’s hard to wrap your mind around. In this sense, God is always with us.
The second way the Bible speaks about the presence of God might be called the manifest presence of God. God manifests his presence to us in a way we can experience. God often tells people in the Bible that he is with them or will be with them. God tells Joshua that he will be with him wherever he goes (Joshua 1:9). Sometimes Joshua did not experience the presence of the Lord, but many times he did, as we see throughout the book of Joshua. Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 28:20 that he will be with them to the end of the age. They often experience the presence of Jesus, and so do we. We see David’s declaration of God’s manifest presence in Psalm 16:1, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Experiencing the manifest presence of God is a wonderful blessing that brings joy into our hearts. We can experience it at any moment by going to the Lord in prayer at his throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).
A third way we can find joy in the Lord is by receiving the very joy of Jesus. Jesus was a very joyful person even though he suffered a lot. He promised that his disciples could experience his joy. The very night before he was crucified, knowing what would happen the next day, he promised his fearful disciples that his joy would be in them, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). Understanding the plan of God in Jesus Christ, they would realize that all the sorrow and suffering, and even the confusion they went through was working towards the fulfillment of the plan of God in the person and work of Jesus. This realization filled them with Jesus’ joy because they knew it was all for their good and God’s glory. We, too, can experience the joy of Jesus as we come to see our lives and struggles as part of God’s plan of salvation.
What do we do when Joy is hard to Find?
Though we may understand and use all the ways we discussed to find Joy in the Lord, the experience of joy may still sometimes be elusive. Besides that, we all experience from time to time very difficult things. In these especially hard times, we can struggle to experience joy. Though we diligently look for it, it is nowhere to be found. What do we do? The first thing we do is to continue to seek joy in the Lord in the three ways we discussed in the previous section. But there is something else we must do in these especially dry times. We must cry out to God in prayer with faith. Even if our faith is only a mustard seed in size, we still cry out to him in that faith. This is especially helpful for two reasons. First, God cares about us and hears our prayers. The sincere prayer of the brokenhearted will be heard by the Lord. He has a compassionate and tender heart for those who love him but struggle. Seek him, Jesus promises, and you will find him.
The second reason prayer can lead us to joy when we struggle to find it is that prayer, by definition, is an entrance into the presence of God. The presence of God is the place of joy. It may not be an exuberant joy but a quiet joy deep in the heart. When we seek God in prayer, and the joy doesn’t come, we must persevere in prayer with hope, knowing that God loves us and will meet us at the throne of grace. Joy may be slow in coming, but it will come by the grace of God.