It’s a very common usual thing for us to feel happy when something good happens to us and sad or discouraged when things don’t happen the way we wanted or expected. These feelings of happiness and being sad are triggered by our life circumstances or happenings.
The Bible talks about a joy that is not dependent on any situation or person in our lives, THE JOY OF THE LORD
The Joy of the Lord is your strength – Nehemiah 8:10
Wait , what does that mean ? Let’s explore that a little bit
We can rejoice in the joy of the Lord when we are rooted in His love. We can be partakers of God’s joy when we REALLY KNOW who God is and believe in His sovereignty. The joy of the Lord comes naturally to a Christian who has personal relationship with His God the Father . That’s why we see some people not shaken in the natural realm even when terrible things happen to them. They trust God for their life completely, they hold onto the promises of God in those tough times and go on with their lives with the blessed assurance that Jesus will never leave them or forsake them or fail them
I would just like to share a bit of personal testimony here.Reflecting back, 4 years ago I was dealing with a separation that ended in divorce. Along with the trauma of whatever that happened while I was a Christian, I was also a first time mom to a 3 month old. I had so many questions on why I had to face a divorce when I was still a Christian. I wondered what will happen to me and my child now. My heart was gripped with fear and my mind had a thousand questions to deal with, in addition to my sleep deprivation and exhaustion from having a newborn baby , having to find a place to live and returning to work to make a living for both of us.
I definitely was not happy with my circumstances but the joy of the Lord that I had in me gave me the hope to hang on, the strength to stand up and the courage to move on. I was able to build myself up again in-spite of the numerous challenges I had to deal with of being a single mom. The doctrine became a life experience for me and became my source of strength for my life. I was and am so very grateful that I had God in my life then and now. Else honestly I am not sure where my life would have been. Probably it might have taken a different path.
This lent season we might be expectantly looking to God for answered prayers. We might be crying out to God like David
“How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?” Psalm 13
He asks God ‘ How long ‘ 4 times in this Psalm. But at the end of the Psalm, He shifts his focus from his sorrow to his trust in the Lord and His salvation
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me” Psalm 13: 5-6
David was tempted to drift towards his sorrow based on his feelings and circumstances. But he was quick enough to re-focus his attention on the Lord , which is his true source of strength. My encouragement for you is to find your joy in Him. When we do that, it’s like a package, along with the joy comes your yearning to spend time with Him, along with that comes His wisdom to handle your mountains and along with that comes the contentment which is a great gain in the Heavenly realm
My prayer for you today is Col 2:7
7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Stay Blessed in Him
fromHisHearttoyours 
Wonderful post! Really liked, “he was quick enough to re-focus his attention on the Lord , which is his true source of strength.”
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Thanks for the encouragement Lydia 🙂 .. How true is it that we often tend to make a full circle before we come to the realisation of the true source of strength which is in the Lord, when we can actually avoid that long ride only if we only intentionally choose to ‘re-focus’ on His strength than our then sorrows. I guess at that stage this will be the hard part to do
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