Joy Sweeps In

Dear Dr. Lawyer,

So what am I doing wrong if I’m drawing closer to Christ in every way I know how (Bible reading, church, Bible study, Christian friends), and I do feel fulfilled as a mother, but I wouldn’t call myself joyful?  It’s more 90% of an ‘I made it through another day’ type of attitude with 10% joyful attitude although I desperately want to enjoy and cherish every moment I’m given with my family.  How much of that is my wrong thinking and how much is me just battling my flesh?

Frazzled in Washington

Dear Frazz,

Joy is one of those things that has two components to it. It is a fruit of the Spirit, which means it is a character trait of someone who knows God through Jesus. it is the fruit of having the Spirit dwelling inside of us. It is also something that God commands us to be/do. Phil 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord all the time” (also see Rom 12:12).” Rejoicing or being joyful is a command we must obey. This means it is something we choose to do.

In another place, we see that we can quench the Spirit in our lives (1 Thess 5:19).

The way I put these three things together is that normally God’s presence in our lives infuses joy into us. We naturally, or supernaturally, rejoice because God in us is rejoicing in and through us. But when the trials (cares, worries, anxieties, struggles, etc.) of life pile up, we can drift off the path and quench the Spirit in us.  We forget who we are in Christ and joy disappears. Then someone like Paul comes along and reminds us of who and what we are. He might say something like:

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself (Php 3:20–21).

Then tells us to rejoice and not be anxious (Phil 4:6) and to let the peace of God overcome and overwhelm us (peace is also a fruit of the Spirit). Then we confess the sin of drifting and not remembering and sliding out of God’s plan for us. He forgives us and we rejoice. At this point, we are choosing to obey God by rejoicing and he is inside us rejoicing in us. Both are happening at the same time. We just sit there being Christ-ian—with a big smile on our face (even while the world around us is still in chaos).

So, the answer your question, from 50 miles away it looks like you are battling your flesh in your own power and understanding of what is going on in the battle. It looks like you have turned your eyes away from Jesus and begun to look at the giants in your life and instead of believing what Jesus says about those giants. Instead, you believe what you have told yourself about them; and how to fight them. Hey! That reminds me of an old hymn:

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

And then you rejoice and Joy sweeps in.