I read Amity’s blog the other day and was inspired by the things she wrote about asking God for things like wisdom and peace and joy. I love how she encourages us to ask God for things like that and how she delights to tell us that it’s his desire to give those things and that he really does. I was inspired to ask as well.
Particularly on my list that day was joy. Just not feeling it. In fact, while I do have peace, there has been an underlying feeling of sadness in my days which I believe is coming from grieving a recent loss. I wanted to be light-hearted and happy, experiencing joy in the midst of my circumstances.
As I was talking to God about it in the shower (it seems a lot of conversations with God happen there) he reminded me of the place in his word that says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” James 1:2-3
“Count it all joy...”
What I believe the Holy Spirit was telling me is this: I must credit joy to me when I face various trials that produce steadfast faith. I must deem my trials as joy. Therefore, I have joy because I am going through a hard place in life. I have joy. I have it! My suffering is my joy.
So I began to thank God for giving me joy - based on what God says joy is, not on what I think it is or what I want it to be.
I noticed that my outlook began to change as the day went on. The sadness of grieving remains, but I am no longer bemoaning the fact that I don’t have joy in my life. The enemy has no grounds to come at me with the lie that there’s something wrong with me because I am not experiencing light-hearted happiness right now. God has given me true joy. This does not in any way deny the exuberance and delight of the feelings of great joy. Joy does come with emotion attached. It is ALL joy.
Because I knew I was going to write about this for my post today and wanted to make sure I wasn’t going off on my own thinking, and because I love words, I looked up “count” in the Greek. It means to consider, deem, account, think. It “denotes a belief resting not on one's inner feeling or sentiment, but on the due consideration of external grounds, and the weighing and comparing of facts.” (Strong’s Greek Lexicon - blueletterbible.org)
Count it all joy, my sisters...
Particularly on my list that day was joy. Just not feeling it. In fact, while I do have peace, there has been an underlying feeling of sadness in my days which I believe is coming from grieving a recent loss. I wanted to be light-hearted and happy, experiencing joy in the midst of my circumstances.
As I was talking to God about it in the shower (it seems a lot of conversations with God happen there) he reminded me of the place in his word that says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” James 1:2-3
“Count it all joy...”
What I believe the Holy Spirit was telling me is this: I must credit joy to me when I face various trials that produce steadfast faith. I must deem my trials as joy. Therefore, I have joy because I am going through a hard place in life. I have joy. I have it! My suffering is my joy.
So I began to thank God for giving me joy - based on what God says joy is, not on what I think it is or what I want it to be.
I noticed that my outlook began to change as the day went on. The sadness of grieving remains, but I am no longer bemoaning the fact that I don’t have joy in my life. The enemy has no grounds to come at me with the lie that there’s something wrong with me because I am not experiencing light-hearted happiness right now. God has given me true joy. This does not in any way deny the exuberance and delight of the feelings of great joy. Joy does come with emotion attached. It is ALL joy.
Because I knew I was going to write about this for my post today and wanted to make sure I wasn’t going off on my own thinking, and because I love words, I looked up “count” in the Greek. It means to consider, deem, account, think. It “denotes a belief resting not on one's inner feeling or sentiment, but on the due consideration of external grounds, and the weighing and comparing of facts.” (Strong’s Greek Lexicon - blueletterbible.org)
Count it all joy, my sisters...
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