How to Find Joy When the Life You Have Is Not the Life You Hoped ForSample

Stop #4: Joy

Even though Joshua was responsible for leading the Israelites into the land of Canaan, his formative struggles would also be formative struggles for Israel. The entire nation had been enslaved in Egypt. They had all cried out to God for deliverance and seen the deliverance come. But, long after Joshua has gone to be with the Lord, we will see Israel continue to struggle. They will experience seasons of great prosperity and they will also experience seasons of great tragedy.

Yet through it all, Israel will be a people who choose joy.

Israel’s joy was not shallow and did not ignore their current realities. On the contrary, it transcended above them. Their joy found its strength in the past, not the present. Israel’s words of delight reflected a celebration of past deliverance coupled with a future hope for an experience of the same.

Why is it so hard to find joy sometimes?

It’s because we believe our heart is a cup that can only be filled with one emotion at a time, a reservoir where joy can’t exist alongside longing. And so in order to truly experience joy, we think we have to get rid of our longing.

Rather than seeing longing as blocking our joy, we should see joy as the counterweight to our longing. Because when joy and sorrow rest on the scale of our heart together and each side is weighed, the biblical promise we can take to the bank is that true joy weighs more, lifting the weight of the sorrow and helping us bear it.

Over two thousand years ago, Jesus stepped in to save us from the worst kind of longing we could ever experience: a life separate from God.

Our joy is fixed in the past reality of His redemption, but it is also fixed in the future reality of this redemption’s consummation. Our joy rests in the truth of our unhindered communion with God and in the unwavering truth that one day we will spend eternity with Him in a world without sin and longing.

While it can seem hard to find joy, the truth is that it is readily available for all believers. But we don’t find it by looking at our present circumstances; we find it by looking at the past work of Jesus and the future hope we have in Him!

Our ability to experience joy is not blocked by the present pain of our longing. Unlike happiness, joy is not dependent on our circumstances but transcends above them. Joy reminds us that our sorrows are real, but they are also temporary because our joy is rooted in our deep understanding of what it means for us to be children of God.

Salvation through Jesus Christ changes our present reality and our eternal future. Through Jesus, we get access to God and all that He has for us. We get the help of the Holy Spirit, a listening ear for our lament, hope for future transformation, and a divine identity and purpose through which God will change us and help change the world.