Hello
Well ... you could have been speaking directly to me! I just went through a real struggle with love ... feeling the same way you do about joy. It was just last week I said to Jesus, "please pull me out of this pit because I can't do it myself." I didn't know it but that was the answer. I think the first thing to remember that joy and love and peace and all of them are fruit manifested in us by the Holy Spirit. I'm still working that out on the love fruit. If I have the Holy Spirit then sholdn't I be able to feel love. I can give it but I don't feel it. Well, that's not true entirely. When I thought that He showed me love through my 7 month old grandson ... I could feel that in all it's glory. So it showed me I trust the love of a child and that I don't have trust in the love adults profess. Then He showed me it was His love that made it all happen anyway. So that's where I am on that. In a rough form what the Lord showed me was the spirit of the antichrist in the end times washes over the world making people feel dispair and hopelessness and all the other gobblitygook. At first it was a little scary to think the spirit of antichrist was taking a direct hit at me, but that lasted but a few minutes. Through the process what the Lord has been showing me is the fruit of the Holy Spirit vs the fruit not of the Spirit ... in other words the spirits of antichrist. The first thing I was given was a book on the strongholds on man. It just didn't sit right with me all the rebuking and doing this and that. I know our God just isn't that confusing and it felt like that was trying to do it on our own steam and felt rather scary ... what if I did it wrong!. The Lord quickly showed me truth in that. This is what He showed me.
I don't have to do anything in the fight other than putting on my armour of God and prayer and fasting. Because I turned to Him he will protect me and lead me through it. We forget He is a stronghold, too. Our Strongtower. We need to turn to Him. I've had such peace since I understood that. I don't have to fight the battle! It's already been done. What He showed me was the importance of where our focus is. We totally have to get our eyes off the pain in our life ... the things that steal our joy and love and on to Jesus. Most of the problem is where the focus is. And He showed me how the gifts of fruit from the Holy Spirit in our lives can go right by us without our seeing them because our focus wasn't on love or joy ... it was on the hurt and pain. He knows where our joy and love lies and He knows how best to get us there. It's crucial we stop focusing on the power of the enemy and start trusting the power of God in our lives.
The other thing I wanted to tell you is in brief a very wonderful person on these forums (Jere) showed me through the Lord.
Psalm 84 The Valley of Baca aka the valley of tears
( remember valleys and mountains are representative of highs and lows in our life)
I can't explain it in the awesome way she did but in essence it's about those who while going through these tears and pain of heart make wellsprings along the way. I take this as the fruit of the Spirit manifested in us. These wellsprings leave something for the next person who comes along, even when we're gone, to drink from through their walk through the valley of tears. Our strength through those times of tears in the valley are those times of high points in our life ... however few they may seem. It's a poor explanation but the verse I like in it best is 7. They go from strength to strength,
every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. I don't know why but that's a promise that has come to mean a lot to me. That all this pain will not be for not.
So then the verse I always give with Psalm 84 is this. Psalm 126:5,6. They that sow in tears (planting those wellsprings through the pain) shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
You see those tears we shed turn out to be some mighty precious seed we sow with. I can attest to the fact that the most fruit producing times I've had have been during the pain in my life. I know it doesn't fix things but maybe it'll give a little better understanding of His working in our lifes when we think we're at an all time low and can't possibly be of use during those times so what's the point. I'm reminded of Paul when he said, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessaties, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake:
for when I am weak I am strong. Somehow knowing that those tears have value make the pain worth it. He
will turn it to joy.
I pray something in all this rambling helps you through this. I can sure relate! I guess the answe is joy is in the Lord ... not in the cruddy world I detest so much. So He's the one to turn to for the answer. It's your staarting point. Then be willing to hear and see. The first thing He did was show me where change was needed in me. God bless you and yours.
