Finding Joy

The Bible has a lot to say about the importance of joy in our lives. In Nehemiah 8:10, we learn that in times of sorrow, the joy of the Lord is our strength. The Psalms tell us that we experience fullness of joy in God’s presence (Ps. 16:11; 21:6; 34:5; 90:14; 94:19). Paul declares that the kingdom of God is comprised of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which means joy is one third of the kingdom (Rom. 14:17). And of course, joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).

Yet, for many of us, joy in the midst of real life can feel very elusive. How do we experience joy when navigating grief or facing significant challenges in our families, our careers, our health, or other aspects of our lives?

I’ve heard people talk about the difference between joy and happiness—in that happiness is based in our situations, while joy is not. This is true. But it is also true that genuine joy will result in emotions that mirror, or feel like, happiness. In fact, I’d like to define joy as a happiness that doesn’t make sense in the context of our lives.

Joy isn’t grinning and bearing it by faith, but a supernatural celebrating that can only come from God’s heart, even in the middle of very challenging or painful circumstances. 

In this way, joy can coexist with grief—because even while we acknowledge the pain of what we’re walking through, we experience the strengthening of God’s joy in our lives. We learn to laugh in the face of fear and to dance in the valley of the shadow of death (2 Cor. 8:2).

True joy is supernatural. We can only experience it by God’s empowering grace (John 15:11). But that reality doesn’t mean we aren’t also responsible to cultivate joy in our lives. When we find ourselves in challenging circumstances, and even in the normalcy of seasons that are just OK, we need to purposefully create rhythms in our lives that grow God’s joy in our hearts.

Here are a few keys I rely on to cultivate joy in my heart, especially in hard seasons:

1. Spend time in God’s presence and worship him.

Time in God’s presence refocuses our hearts and emotions like nothing else. “When I am filled with cares, your comfort brings me joy” (Ps. 94:19 CSB). When we center ourselves with him, even the largest problems and pains of our lives do not loom as large. That doesn’t mean they no longer hurt, but it does mean we are able to step back and rest in eternal perspective (Heb. 10:34). The reality of his love for us and his power to heal our hearts transcends all our earthly trials.

Paul talks about this reality in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (NIV). This is joy in practice—the ability to connect with God’s presence and see our troubles in light of the glory of eternity.

2. Ask God to help you see where he’s at work.

In hard seasons, I’ve learned to ask God what he’s doing in me through the challenges I’m facing. God wastes nothing. He will use every hurdle and roadblock to shape us into people who better reflect his glory. (This doesn’t mean he causes the bad things in life, but that he is a genius at turning anything for our good.)

And we always have a choice about whether we will learn and grow through what we’re facing. Rather than asking God why things happened, I’ve found much more healing and freedom in asking him to help me see where he’s at work and what he wants to teach me.

This helps me engage personal growth, gives me vision for the future, and enables me persevere in the process.

James tells us to “consider it a great joy” when we face trials, because the testing of our faith “produces endurance” (James 1:2–3 CSB). In modern language, we might say that we will find joy in our difficulties when we can face them with a growth mindset. There are many things in life we cannot control, but we can always control our attitude. We can always choose to look for the lesson and invite God’s maturing work in us, even in the hardest seasons.

When we see what he’s doing in us and in our situation, it is then often easier to hear him about our next steps. Hard seasons are disorienting, and this clouds our ability to clearly hear God’s guidance about how to respond or what to do. Focusing on what God’s doing takes our focus off the problem and enables us to more clearly hear any direction he may have for us.

3. Pursue peace as a precursor to joy.

Peace is the pathway to joy, because God’s peace gets us out of our heads and connected to his heart. The Bible tells us his peace literally protects our hearts and minds (Phil. 4:7). It is a shield that enables us to shake off fear. From that place of peace, we are then able to move into joy.

And peace and joy are key to stepping into our spiritual authority.

In Psalm 2:4, we see God’s response to the threats of his enemies: He laughs. Because he knows his own power, he is unshakable. Similarly, Jesus slept in a boat in the middle of a storm because his trust in God transcended any human fear he might have felt (Mark 4:35-41). From that place of peace, he could command the storm to stop, and it obeyed.

Jesus also rebuked his disciples for their lack of faith in that moment. I often wonder whether he rebuked them because he had hoped they would step into their authority and rebuke the storm. It is too easy to get stuck in fear, but Jesus offers us a peaceful and joyful authority.

When we enter into peace, we begin to pray from peace rather than fear, and those prayers are mighty. This is how we step into our authority as children of God.

God desires to fill us with all joy and all peace as we put our faith in him (Rom. 15:13 CSB). This may sound too good to be true, but it’s not. Jesus has made the miracle of joy available to us every day, but it’s still a choice we must make.

For more on this, check out Amy's book, The Way Back to Hope.

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