I've Got The Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy... (Where?)

Joy is a spiritual personality attribute. Galatians 5:22

It is not a natural attribute with which some people are born. It's not psyching ourselves into an upbeat mood through positive thinking. There are people born with naturally energetic, cheerful dispositions. There are others prone to melancholy. But the Scriptures that tell us to be joyful aren't limited to the upbeat folks. They're aimed at all of us, regardless of our natural tendencies. Because joy is a spiritual personality attribute...

o That means joy is a moral obligation. The Lord tells us, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!" Philippians 4:4. Joy is as much a part of the Christian life as being loving or maritally faithful. It is a sin not to rejoice.

o That means our natural traits can change. You might say, "But I'm just a mopey, morose person by nature! I'm depressed, and happy to be that way!" So what? The Spirit is more powerful than our traits. He has the supernatural power to counteract our grouchy, depressive tendencies.

What causes joylessness?

1. Not being Spirit-filled. Eph. 5:18-20. A lot of Christians want to use the Holy Spirit as if He was electricity (either to fix their personality problems, force someone else to become a Christian, or maybe to work signs-and-wonders), but they don't want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

2. Unrepented sin. Specifically...

a. Anger. Ephesians 4:26-27. Anger is like a handle to your mind onto which Satan grips. Sometimes the anger is toward God. This type of anger is a form of unbelief toward the Gospel. We can be sure that if we are angry at God, then it's always we who are off-base.

b. Unforgiveness. Matt. 18:32-35. Christ in this parable singles out unforgiveness for special reprobation. There are Christians dragging through life in emotional misery, because of all the bitterness they carry around in their hearts.

3. Failure to draw upon the Lord. Isa. 40:31. Since "the joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10), then drawing upon the Lord through daily Bible reading and prayer renews joy, and the strength that comes from it. What would you think of a professional athlete who only drank water occasionally, and only occasionally ate nutritious food when he or she was in the mood?

4. Unbelief in heaven and your future place there. 1 Peter 1:3-8 Notice that the joy here results from faith in your living hope in your imperishable, undefiled, and unfading future inheritance in heaven.

5. Unwillingness to bow to God's will. Luke 10:21. This is also a form of unbelief. We're always happy when we get what we want. But are we also happy that God gets what He wants? For example, Christ thanked His heavenly Father that He had blinded the eyes of the wise, and instead opened the eyes of the humble. But instead of feeling miserable over those who rejected His message, Christ rejoiced, and said these words: "Let it be so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight."

Solutions to the problem.

1. Pray every day to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not be used by you. He's not here for you. You're here for Him. He's not your partner. He's your Master. But He's not going to grab control of you, or distort you, like Satan does. He wants to guide you, fill you, and heal you. He gives joy as He gives Himself, but first you have to fully surrender yourself to Him.

2. Apply yourself to becoming a non-angry person. What do you need to do, to change from an angry person into a happy person? This might mean ending some of your friendships, as well as some of your viewing and listening habits. If you're depressed, and if it's not being caused by biological causes, then you are either sad, or angry, or both. Whatever the past event was that is still making you angry might merit disapproval. Ceasing from anger doesn't mean calling a bad thing good. But you will only be joyful when you learn not to go through life getting angry all the time.

3. Forgive everyone you believe owes you a moral debt. This mean that you, in the sight of God, give up any right to revenge or repayment. It also means you're going to let God handle, all by Himself, any score-settling that needs doing. God forgave us your billions of sins that we committed against Him. Now it's time for us to forgive the dozens of sins that have been committed against us.

4. Are you an unbelieving believer? Do you have a poster of Doubting Thomas up on your wall? What do you need to do to overcome your addiction to spiritual skepticism? Do you need to reconsider the evidences of the Bible's divine inspiration? Do you need to re-examine Christ's claims to be the Son of God? Should you read some good Christian apologetical material, to remind yourself why we believe that Jesus rose from the dead? When John the Baptist was in prison facing execution, and began to doubt Christ, Christ didn't chide him, but pointed him to proof (in that case, the proof of His miracles). When the anguished father cried out, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!", Jesus didn't chastise him. So what proofs of your faith do you need to go back and reconsider?

5. Joy will come when you submit to the way God wants things to be. You can't be happy as a Christian, and be constantly aggravated and chafing against what God either is or isn't doing. "A hope long deferred makes the heart sick", Solomon said, so the answer is to stop pining away for whatever it is. There is godless, hopeless fatalism that just throws up its hands to the all-powerful forces of nature. That's not what I'm counseling here. But there is a humble resignation of the situation and one's role in it over into God's sovereign hands, that is a precursor to joy.