Restoring Your Joy

I remember a time in high school when I was overwhelmed with anxiety and fear. I had no personal relationship with the Lord and so I could not experience the joy of salvation in my life. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, who didn’t yet live in my heart, so whenever I felt joy, it was because of God’s loving kindness rather than what I had inherited from Christ. My eyes were not fixed on Jesus and so I had everything to worry about. My boarding schoolmates called me “Miss Stress.”

Though I went to Sunday school and sang precious hymns to the Lord I knew of, I didn’t know who he actually was and I certainly didn’t know what he did for me and what that meant. Raised in a Christian family, I felt God’s presence outside of me, but only when he was within me by his Spirit did this change my reality. When I received Jesus by faith, I was introduced to joy, peace, love, understanding, and all the goodness that comes only from the Lord God.

I began to want to read the Bible and grow in the knowledge of God. Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Our joy is nurtured through focusing on our salvation and the fact that we are sons and daughters of Mighty God and thus heirs with Christ of all that the Father calls good. When we do sin, we can have our joy restored when we sincerely repent and turn to the Lord for cleansing as Psalm 51:1-12 outlines.

We are inheritors of light and goodness by the blood of Jesus. When we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, we keep our eyes fixed on light and goodness instead of what this world has to offer, which is only ever darkness, because only Jesus is the truth and the way and the life. Refocus on Christ and your salvation, and your joy will be restored.

Heavenly Father, keep my mind fixed on Jesus and the gift of my salvation. Help me be constantly aware of and submissive to your Holy Spirit in my midst. Remove all worry and fear from me and help me set my mind on the things above where Christ is seated at your right hand. Thank you for being so helpful Father, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Throughout this Day: Remember and meditate on how the Holy Spirit lives in you both day and night. Train yourself to remember him first before you begin to worry, stress, or fear. Through his power at work in you, become focused on things above and not the fleeting things in the world.