How do I experience "joy"?

[donnamabob]

I feel like I've lost all of my joy. Either that or I have never experienced true joy (as in the fruit of the Spirit). Lots of preachers seem to have a different take on where "joy" comes from. For example, David Wilkerson says that it comes from repentance, and a hunger for God's word...but Joyce Meyer seems to think it comes from doing "joyful" things (as described in her book "eat the cookie, buy the shoes") that make you happy. They even use the same scriptures from Nehemiah to make their points.

I see scriptures in the bible that seem to suggest to me that we "force" ourselves to be joyful despite what we're feeling (although I try and try and cannot seem to muster up "joy" from nothing) (James 1:2, Habakkuk 3:17 for example).

I'm starting to understand that obtaining the fruit of the Spirit does happen from "doing the bible" (generally speaking), and I believe that I am starting to "do the bible", but I am not seeing any kind of increase in joy in my life, if anything I feel worse.

I want to be joyful so that I can give joy to others. I want to have evidence of Christ living in me, and I want to overflow with his goodness so that others will want what I have...but I don't have it. I really very desperately want to understand what I am missing in life. I don't understand why I do not reflect the image of a Christian that the bible describes. Please help me to understand. Thank you!

 

[ByTheSpirit]

Well first off, buying shoes or etc can't make you joyful because you have to spend to do that, and that type of thinking is saying you can buy happiness, which we all know you can't. Secondly, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control are all listed as "the fruit of the Holy Spirit" which is a singular word, meaning if you have one you have them all. The Holy Spirit will not just grow one in your life and leave the others to themselves, it is all part of the package. It seems to me that the devil is robbing you of your inheritance in Christ. I posted about fighting the devil in the Spirit-filled/Charismatic forum if that interests you to read that. It may help. Umm I would tell you more specifically from personal experience, praying very earnestly is a great way to recapture the joy of your faith. I once had a very serious financial situation I was going through and I was freaking out about it. Possibly going to lose much of my belongings due to financial strain, and my 3 kids were going to suffer for it. I lost a lot of sleep over it and so I just prayed. The harder I prayed it seemed the less likely an answer was going to come, but I kept praying until finally one day, ALL DAY I prayed and cried my heart out to God and I had such a peace overwhelm me that what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7 became a reality in my life. I have never doubted the power of prayer since that moment. I would say get alone with God somewhere and really search Him out and seek Him in prayer, and biblical meditation. Jeremiah 29:13 says if you seek Him earnestly with all your heart, you will find Him, and joy is there for you, just we tend to lose sight of those things when situations around us go wrong. Like Peter when he walked on the water towards Jesus, he was going great until he took his eyes off the Lord then he started to sink, but I love how the second he cried out for help, Jesus pulled him up out of the water. It wasn't until Jesus had safely placed Peter back in the boat and made him secure from the sea that He rebuked Peter for his unbelief.

Colossians 3:1-4, "1 So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. 4 When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory"

I like to tell people that when we place our mind on things of heaven it simply means to think like you are there. There is no pain in heaven, no sorrow, no hopelessness, etc. Only love, joy, peace, etc. Something very simple you can do is go on a walk, take note of things around you. It seems something so simple, but yet we take for granted all the blessings God has given us, yet He proves His love for you by granting them to you anyway. Sight, sound, touch, movement, emotion, breath all these things are something that we always tend to think is given, but if we just stop and really take note of those things, we can tend to see just how blessed we truly are. I hope I helped you and I'll pray for you! Lastly, just remember, Jesus said as He closed the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 that there are two different types of people, the wise and the foolish. Notice something in that though, the storms of life hit both of them, but they are seperated by how they respond to Christ's teaching, not how they respond to the storm. The Wise listen to Christ and His words and obey, they foolish still listen to them, but choose to disobey or just not follow them. God bless you!

 

[keepinitsimple]

I feel like I've lost all of my joy. Either that or I have never experienced true joy (as in the fruit of the Spirit). Lots of preachers seem to have a different take on where "joy" comes from. For example, David Wilkerson says that it comes from repentance, and a hunger for God's word...but Joyce Meyer seems to think it comes from doing "joyful" things (as described in her book "eat the cookie, buy the shoes") that make you happy. They even use the same scriptures from Nehemiah to make their points.

I see scriptures in the bible that seem to suggest to me that we "force" ourselves to be joyful despite what we're feeling (although I try and try and cannot seem to muster up "joy" from nothing) (James 1:2, Habakkuk 3:17 for example).

I'm starting to understand that obtaining the fruit of the Spirit does happen from "doing the bible" (generally speaking), and I believe that I am starting to "do the bible", but I am not seeing any kind of increase in joy in my life, if anything I feel worse.

I want to be joyful so that I can give joy to others. I want to have evidence of Christ living in me, and I want to overflow with his goodness so that others will want what I have...but I don't have it. I really very desperately want to understand what I am missing in life. I don't understand why I do not reflect the image of a Christian that the bible describes. Please help me to understand. Thank you!

Joy is not found in "doing the bible", that is the way to lose your joy.. Your trying to walk a walk in the flesh doing your own works.. Good way to lose your joy.. We walk by faith(what God is doing in our lives), not what we can do and this is by love(His love) that came by way of the cross..
The Lord tells us that "The Lord is our Righteousness".. All that we have been given to serve Him comes from the Lord..
1Cr 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three; but the greatest of these
[is] charity.

Charity is love put into action through faith, "a living faith".. The love that comes from above is a building block to hope and hope is a building block to faith, so love is the greatest and all of which we received from above..

Always see the Lord in the love that He has given and follow Him in His love toward others.. There you will find His joy..

Something the Lord gave a while back:
The Spirit will always lead us to the cross, but the flesh will always lead us away from the cross..

Let's follow the Spirit in His love..

God bless

 

[donnamabob]

Joy is not found in "doing the bible", that is the way to lose your joy.. Your trying to walk a walk in the flesh doing your own works

No, I'm not. I'm trying to follow Matthew 7:24 and build my house on the rock. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock". When I say, "doing the bible" I am not saying that I am trying to earn my way to heaven. Sorry, if it came off that way! I'm not exactly the best at wording things. I know that what you are describing here is a way that people lose their joy though, and I can see why.

 

[ByTheSpirit]

Donna you have the right idea. Like Jesus says in Matt 7 the storms of life come to us all its how we respond to Jesus' teaching that determines our fate. Remember He said seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. When we place our eyes upon Jesus and keep them there, we will always find love, joy, and peace bevause He is all those things and so much more. Hallelujah we serve a Savior that is bigger than our problems!

 

[keepinitsimple]

No, I'm not. I'm trying to follow Matthew 7:24 and build my house on the rock. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock". When I say, "doing the bible" I am not saying that I am trying to earn my way to heaven. Sorry, if it came off that way! I'm not exactly the best at wording things. I know that what you are describing here is a way that people lose their joy though, and I can see why.

My apologies. Sometimes I have a hard time expressing what I mean in writing..


God bless

 

[donnamabob]

Donna you have the right idea. Like Jesus says in Matt 7 the storms of life come to us all its how we respond to Jesus' teaching that determines our fate. Remember He said seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. When we place our eyes upon Jesus and keep them there, we will always find love, joy, and peace bevause He is all those things and so much more. Hallelujah we serve a Savior that is bigger than our problems!

Thanks, I'm getting closer to the "revelation" I need by the minute. What you said here is definitely part of it. I'm listening to a teaching series by R.C. Sproul on Joy right now, and he's talking about abiding in the vine...I'll let you know when I "get" it!

 

[donnamabob]

My apologies. Sometimes I have a hard time expressing what I mean in writing..


God bless

No prob, you should hear me try to express myself verbally...ugh, not a pretty picture! Man, I need Jesus!

 

[tturt]

Interesting because this is the last verse I looked at Psa 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

We all need to spend more time with Yahweh and deliberately focus on Him - reading Scripture such as Psa 145 and play some music that's about Him and think about some of His titles, names, and attributes and sing a song to Him. Based on such Scriptures as I Thess 5:17; Matt 6:6; John 4:24; Psa 16:11; 46:10, 69:30; 71:23; and 100:4.

 

[JoeyArnold]

Psalm 16:11: Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy.

1 Corinthians 13:12: Perfect joy is limited if we aren't perfect yet.

 

[donnamabob]

1 Corinthians 13:12: Perfect joy is limited if we aren't perfect yet.

Well, that's a good point...but I'll gladly take some imperfect joy! How do I get that?

 

[JoeyArnold]

Well, that's a good point...but I'll gladly take some imperfect joy! How do I get that?

Proverbs 3:5-6: joy over circumstances.

 

[keepinitsimple]

Interesting because this is the last verse I looked at Psa 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

We all need to spend more time with Yahweh and deliberately focus on Him - reading Scripture such as Psa 145 and play some music that's about Him and think about some of His titles, names, and attributes and sing a song to Him. Based on such Scriptures as I Thess 5:17; Matt 6:6; John 4:24; Psa 16:11; 46:10, 69:30; 71:23; and 100:4.

Amen!

 

[keepinitsimple]

1 Corinthians 13:12: Perfect joy is limited if we aren't perfect yet.

Yes, in God's perfect love..

Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

God is Spirit.. This verse is showing to be perfect in His Spirit, in love, kindness, mercy, etc. It agrees with 1Cor 13..

God bless

 

[donnamabob]

This is some pretty important progress that I've made today...

So, I was listening to a teaching series on "joy" that R.C. Sproul put together (Lecture 3, How Do You Spell "JOY"? from Joy Teaching Series by Dr. R.C. Sproul from Ligonier Ministries) and he mentioned a lot of things that were helpful to me, one of which was a children's acronym:

J-Jesus
O-Others
Y-Yourself

Meaning that in order to have joy, you need to put Jesus first, others second and yourself last. I know that I am not putting Jesus first, but I honestly thought that I was putting myself last because literally every single thing that I do throughout my day is for someone other then myself, but then I realized that I do not want to be spending my entire day serving others, and I think I'm resenting this. This website (how to know if you are selfish) says "When we are distracted we ignorantly perceive that something else can harm (even though Jesus is there) or help us (independently of Jesus). So we abandon our faith in Christ as being all we need in that moment because we have more faith or fear in something other than Jesus." "We have been united with Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and therefore Christ is in us, and we are in Him. Through this union the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us, and thus we know Him. Hence we realize that Jesus is all we need in every moment in life. Thus our lives are a continual look to Him for life and all things that make up our lives."

I think that this is the key here. I am seeing myself starting to look to other things (my husband to take on some of my overwhelming workload, bubble baths, wine, candles, shopping, depression medication, anything that can remove some of this misery for a short while) - but for some reason (the Holy Spirit?), I knew that this was not the answer. Hence this quest, hence I ended up on here asking you guys.

I guess it should have been obvious all along, but the answer here is simply Jesus. Without him, I cannot not be selfish, despite giving every minute of my entire day to others. I couldn't see that although I'm not serving others to try to impress God (the typical "wrong reason" for serving), my own "wrong reason" is that I feel obligated to do the things that I do. I'm obviously obligated to take care of my baby, I feel obligated to do my "wifely duties" around the house, obligated by my college education to work (I work from home), the list goes on and on. And I think that these things are all well and good when they are truly done for the right reasons, and I guess that is only possible by the power of Christ in me. (right?)

So now the question remains, how do I learn to enjoy serving others? Obviously, as I explained above the answer is Jesus...but...how? By reading the bible and praying? How do I get closer to Jesus? How do I put him first in my life? How do I become more like him so that I can find joy in serving others?

Thanks everyone!

 

[JoeyArnold]

How do I learn to enjoy serving others?

You can't. You may never enjoy it. But you can still choose to do it. Die to yourself. Take up you cross. We are not of this world. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. James says that suffering produces perseverance. We are to beg God to help us in life while believing that He will help us in life, that we can do what He wants us to do through & by Him.

 

[donnamabob]

You can't. You may never enjoy it.

Well, I might not understand much about joy, but at the very least I know that this is not true.

Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" If Paul the Apostle instructs us to rejoice ALWAYS (from prison even), then I am fully convinced that I can learn to serve joyfully. In fact, the answer to my question (How do I learn to enjoy serving others) is actually revealed in this very scripture...rejoice in the LORD.

Aside from that, James 1:2 tells us to "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds" (not that serving is supposed to be a trial, although it seems to have turned into one for me) and Habakkuk 3:17-18 says "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior."

 

[stormdancer0]

Joy is not equaled to happiness. Many people get the two mixed up.

 

[donnamabob]

Joy is not equaled to happiness. Many people get the two mixed up.

I think that I definitely get the two mixed up...perhaps you can explain the difference to me? That would be helpful...thanks

 

[JoeyArnold]

I think that I definitely get the two mixed up.

I said earlier that not everybody experiences joy completely. I'm not saying that it is not possible to experience it. Ok, so, happiness is based upon what is happening while joy is in looking at the bigger picture that is founded on eternal principles, eternal attitude, eternal character, eternal perspective. We should choose to quote scriptures in the mist of the lows in life. We have to remind ourselves that, if we're saved, then this miserable life will not last forever. We look past the pain & focus on Christ. It is not about just waiting for God to give us joy. It is about looking ahead to spending eternity with Christ. When we begin to focus on Him the rest begins to numb away & fade away & disappear into the background.