Getting your Joy back

This post is about getting your joy back. You know in these times it is quite easy to lose your joy if you don’t guard it.  What happens when you have lost it and don’t know how to find your way back?  I believe it requires a bit of a one-two punch.  I don’t think it just all comes back at once but that you have to take some steps to get there.  T

he joy that comes from the Lord is also stable and remains even in our ups and downs.  Some of us never ever tapped into that level of joy.

I want to share with you today how I step into it and stay there.  Like I said it is a one two punch.  You have to go from happiness to joy.  These are not the same things.  Happiness can come and go but joy remains.

To start I need to tell you that there are biblical principles that will work whether you are saved or not.  Getting into happiness anyone can do, even an unsaved person but true joy comes from a relationship with Christ.

So let’s talk about the first punch which is happiness.  You can get into a place of happiness, health and well being through laughing.  It’s really that simple, laughter.

You can get rid of stress, lower your blood pressure, improve your psychological well being just by laughing.

This is medical science and has been studied extensively.

Proverbs 17:22  ^“A cheerful heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit makes one sick.”

So being happy and laughing will pull you out of a state of sickness.

I know some of you may not feel like laughing but let me tell you this is where you “fake it till you make it”.  Find something to laugh about.  Go find a comedy on TV and watch it everyday.  You need to put yourself in a position to have some laughter every day.

I actually learnt this principle back in 2002 during the whole September 11 crisis.  I was unsaved at the time.  I had my suitcase out on the bed getting packed to go on vacation, the planes hit the towers and that was the end of that vacation. Then on September 12th I got a call that my dad, who lived in NY was in the hospital and if I wanted to see him before he died I needed to go there immediately.  He had been sick for awhile so that wasn’t the shock what really got me was that I needed to get on an airplane and fly into New York on one of the first airplanes they were allowing to fly.  My goodness!!!  I can’t tell you how I felt.  I had a headache the size of Texas.  From September 12 until the day I could fly (not sure if it was the 13 or 14th but it was the first day planes were allowed back into the air), I had a headache.  I never get headaches, still don’t (unless it’s my demon detector going off) but I had a headache for 3 days straight.  No medication could take it away because it was stress and fear related.  Remember, I’m not saved so I am not thinking of prayer or getting into the presence of God.  I went to NY, and could smell the soot, burnt building and burnt flesh smell in the air (that’s when we should’ve been wearing masks).  The smell was a constant reminder of what happened.

To top it all off there were the constant news terror alerts “It’s a yellow alert, it’s a red alert, it’s an orange alert”  Oh my!  Do you remember those days????  Geez! I couldn’t shake the headache and I was so stressed out.  It was during this time while clicking through the TV channels I landed on Comedy Central and met Jon Stewart, the Daily Show.  Sigh.  What a relief!  I thought it was the real news but it wasn’t it’s a Comedy Show that is set up like the evening news but all they do is make jokes about the real news.  After 30 minutes of laughter, my headache stopped, my mood lifted, I went to bed not stressed out for the first time in a long time.  This is when I learnt the importance of laughter when you are going through a very stressful, anxious situation that you can’t change.  Getting my giggles on daily.

This video below is Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert explaining what it means to go from being on Alert to High Alert. The country needed this explanation prior to the color system (yellow, orange, red).

I would venture to say that at one point Jon was being watched more than the regular news because people just needed to laugh instead of being scared.  He had more influence over people than the evening news.  I’m forever grateful to him for saving me from the “terror alerts”.

If you have no joy and you are stressed out the first thing you need to do is get some comedy/laughter in your life.  It’s a quick fix.

1.  Find a comedian or two to follow on your social media so that you get this drip fed to you throughout the day.  It’s going to help you stay “sane”.  I can tell you as an intercessor  I primarily see hurt, pain, heartache in what I do on a daily basis.  Imagine that I am hearing bad news 99% of the time but few people ever come back with an answered prayer testimony.  So, I make sure to keep up with the jokes.  This helps to keep the mood light.

Proverbs 15:15  When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong; when he is cheerful, everything seems right!

The next thing is….

2. Don’t watch so much news.  At any rate they are ALL biased.  They are there to push their agenda or sway you one way or the other.  Shut if off.  This just causes you to be resentful against one side or the other.  It doesn’t help.

I don’t watch TV anymore.  If there is a show I want to see I get it on an app and that’s it.  Last year I had to cancel many services because I realized that in a 2 year period the TV was only on 3 times and it was all for the weather channel, storm updates.  Quite frankly, even the weather channel is sensationalized!!  Jim Cantore needs an Emmy for best drama in a seasonal report!  Nobody does a better “wind blowing side leaning pose” like him.  LOL

Now that we know you can get happy by just putting yourself in an environment, let’s talk about moving into joy.

Happiness and a good laugh is a temporary fix.  It does lift the spirit and you feel so much better after it.  That’s why we like being around some people that are funny and pleasant because they make us feel good after our interaction with them.  But this doesn’t last forever.  You need to move into a place of joy which is abiding, constant and doesn’t come and go.

True Joy comes from the Holy Spirit.  It is a fruit of the Spirit.  That means that you can have terrible things happening in your life and still have joy, because you have the spirit of God.

So where do you find joy?  In the presence of God…

Psalm 16:11  “You make the path of life known to me.  Complete joy is in your presence. Pleasures are by your side forever.”

When you get in the presence of God, He will restore your joy.

You should also know that you have the ability to impart joy on someone…

Proverbs 15:23 “A person has joy in an apt answer, And how delightful is a timely word!”

So if you see someone is feeling down, be kind to them.  Say something nice and pay them a compliment.

It says in Nehemiah 8:10 “the joy of the Lord is your strength”  and this lets us know that we are strengthened when we find joy in the Lord.  To clearly understand this verse the word “Joy” in this context actually means REJOICE.  So in other words, when you rejoice in the Lord,when you praise God, then you will be strengthened.  And Strength in this verse means stronghold, protection, refuge.

In Praising God you will find protection.  Isn’t that interesting?  I never knew that is what that verse actually meant.

To find true joy you need to actually work your way into it.  This isn’t something that just comes naturally.  This is just to let you know that if you are waiting for joy to find you, it won’t happen just like that.  You have to praise your way into it.  You have to put yourself in the presence of God to get joy.

Now we see that happiness as well as joy requires some work on our part.  Happiness you can get from great circumstances and putting yourself in an environment to be happy or adding laughter to your day.  Anyone can do this.  But Joy, comes from the Holy Spirit and gets activated when we rejoice in the Lord.  This is the reason that only saved people can have true joy, because it comes from the Holy Spirit and by praising God!

But wait…there’s another way to get joy…

Did you know that Jesus was a very happy man?

Psalm 45:7  “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy.”

Three things stand out to me with this scripture:

1. When we love righteousness and we hate wickedness, God anoints us with JOY!!!
2. Then it says that Jesus was actually more joyful (in this passage Joy means gladness,gaiety, light hearted, cheerful, merry) than all of the people around Him.  Did you ever picture Jesus as the happiest Man in the room?  He was!!!  I find this to be such a different picture than what we have been taught about Him.  Let me tell you, He does have a sense of humor.  Have you ever shared a joke with Jesus and have Him share one with you?  He is funny.
3. The final thing is that there is an ACTUAL ANOINTING FOR JOY!!!!  I don’t know about you, but I want some of that!!  We can’t have Joel Osteen hogging the entire market on this!

Do you want it?  Here’s the prayer:

Holy Father,  anoint me with the oil of gladness. Give me a level of joy so that I can affect others around me.  May it be unending, everlasting and pointing to the source, which is You.  May my peers and companions ask why I’m so happy and then I can tell them about You, in Jesus name, Amen.

I have a few people I go to for my daily giggles.  I know we all have different sense of humor; whatever yours may be make it a part of your day.  Every day.

Christianee Porter – she does different characters and her most famous one is Ms. Shirleen who sings in the church choir.  Her latest song “Take me out the group text”

Heather Land – I ain’t doin it.  This lady used to record videos on here job making jokes.  Wouldn’t you know it when her jokes took off she quit her job and now she’s a full time comedian.  Here’s her talking about one of her Staff Meetings.

John Crist – He has this series he’s doing now called “If bible characters were social media influencers”

Trey Kennedy – 5 Stage of wearing masks

These are on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/casualchristiancomedy2

https://www.facebook.com/groups/YonderStar

Do you have any that you follow? Share below.

 

Blessings