Finding Joy When Life Is Hard

In this episode, Finding Joy When Life Is Hard, you'll learn where true joy comes from and how you can experience joy in your life when the circumstances and situations surrounding you are hard, painful, and leaving you feeling anything but joy.

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Hello. And welcome back to episode five of the St. Lorenz, Stephen ministry, caring for you podcast. In today's episode, we are going to talk all about joy. We're going to discuss what joy is and what joy is not. Before we explore that, though, if you are new here, this is a podcast all about you and we aim to bring you Christ's healing love during the hard. The crises, the grief, the difficult life challenges that you may be facing. if Stephen ministry is something that is new to you. We are all about caring for you when you need it. Most. Stephen ministry is a confidential, safe space for you to talk through the areas of your life that you're struggling with. And we want to be Jesus' hands and feet for you. As we walk alongside you. My name is Lisa Stasik and I am your host. I'm also a Stephen Minister. And additionally, I athor a blog called Hope Persevered and I've spoken to various women's groups and church groups and Bible studies. I actually, I recently had an opportunity to speak during a session. At cocoa beach, Florida for a St. Luke's. Lutheran church women's retreat. And the retreats focus was fruit of the spirit from Galatians five. And part of the session that I helped lead discuss the fruit of joy. And I'm excited cause that's actually kind of where this episode is coming from from a little bit that we talked about at the retreat. So how many of you listening can think of a time in your life? Or maybe you're facing something right now that is leaving you feeling anything but joyful. I think we all can relate. If you can see our hands raised. I think we all can relate to times in our life when we don't feel joyful. We don't see it. We certainly don't feel it. The situation in your life is anything but joyful. But what do you do if that describes you right now? What do you do? If you are facing a situation, leaving you in despair. In grief, pain, anger, heartbreak. What, if you don't feel joyful, does that mean that you don't have this gift? That's something that something's somehow missing. There's joy that we are told is a fruit of the spirit, the holy spirit who is living in each of us. Let's look at Galatians 5 22 to 23. It tells us this promise. It says this, but the fruit of the spirit is love. Joy. Peace patience, kindness. Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. Self-control. Against such things. There is no law. We'll come back to that a little bit later. In today's episode. We are going to look at what joy truly is, and we're going to look at what it is not. And that is really important because it can be so easy to allow the influences around us to define it, to define this fruit, this joy. All we have to do is look at the news. Or any social media platform for that matter? And it doesn't take long to see examples of how our culture. How society today portrays something one way. And then we looked at God's word and they are often the opposite of one another. In our culture today, what is right is now considered wrong. What is wrong is no considered right. And I'm not here today to discuss any of the that, because that is not the point, but the point is this, we can't look to how the world, what the media, how our culture defines certain important God given aspects of our life. And it is no different than this gift of joy. Today, we're going to look into how the enemy has twisted this topic of joy. But let's back up for a second. Jesus. He characterized the enemy. This way in John eight. 44. He says this, Jesus says the enemy is this. He is a liar. And the father of lies. So what happens is we have the truth of God's holy word. And the enemy, he wants to take it and twist it. It may seem true on the surface. It may even have some truth attached to it. It may even feel true. But let's look at the very beginning. It says now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, didn't God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden. That's Genesis three, verse one. Did God actually say. He made Eve question God's authority. God's word. God's spoken word. And doesn't that happen today? Notice the enemy, he didn't say. God doesn't exist. But instead he planted a seed of doubt and he made Eve question God's design His intention, His creation. All of it with these simple twisting of the truth. God actually say. And that happened thing again and again today. As we dive into this topic of joy, we will look at what our culture and our society says. And we're going to contrast that with the truth of Scripture. Because it's that same lie. Did actually say underneath all of it. It's underneath how joy is defined. Underneath how we are to obtain it. Or it's source, if you will, of this joy. All right. So joy, the word joy. It appears nearly 200 times in the Bible, which helps us understand just how important. This fruit is. the Greek word Paul used for joy in Galatians five verse 22 is chara. Chara means a calm delight.. I gladness to be joyful. And from there, we can take it a step further. Chara is from the Greek word, chairo chairo which means cheerfulness to rejoice, or to be glad. And so we can kind of put these root means together and we can define joy this way. A cheerfulness. A reason to rejoice a calm. Delight. Now let's take a look at where it comes from. And we'll start looking at some verses in Scripture to help define what joy is. And then we'll also look at what joy is not. Let's begin in Nehemiah eight, verse nine and 10. And we're told this and Nehemiah who was the governor and Ezra the priests and scribes and the Levis who taught the people said to all the people. This day is holy to the Lord. Your God do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready for this day is holy to our Lord. And to not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And Romans four 17 says for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but a righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And Romans five 13. It says this may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. And last but not least. Let's look at Psalm 43 verse four. And we are told this, then I will go to the altar of God to God, my exceeding joy. And I will praise with a lyre. Oh God, my God. these verses they help us see that Joy is not a feeling. And joy is not in our circumstances. I'll repeat that because it's too important. And I don't want you to miss it. Joy is not a feeling joy is not in our circumstances. But rather This joy, this fruit of the spirit. Joy. It is a condition of the heart. It's a condition of your heart. This calm delight. Joy is not in our circumstances or what we have. In our relationships. Our spouses, our kids. Although those things can certainly be a gift from Above. They are not our source of joy. And that's really important to point that out. They are not our source of joy because what happens is we ended up trying to find, we try to achieve. This joy, we try to find joy and joy is often confused with happiness. Just do what makes you happy? We hear that all the time. You see the enemy has taken that same lie did God actually say in our culture, we're no longer reminded that the joy of the Lord is actually our strength, or as we're told in Psalm 43, verse four. God, my exceeding joy. No in our world today in our culture, joy has been robbed of its original intent and it has become this twisted and become a means to be happy. Or has it become this thing that we have to chase after to achieve? Joy in our culture in our society now means something. It was never supposed to mean. Joy is not this thing we need to achieve or put another way. Joy is not something we need to try and obtain. Through our situations or circumstances. You see, we try to find joy in our experiences. Ah, that trip, that trip will make me happy. Or if we just had that house. Or if I just had that job or just had that group of friends, or if my situation would just be different. We try to obtain joy through what we have, rather than through the one you gave every good gift to us in the first place. But is it possible to have joy despite whatever you are facing right now? Each of you in your own personal lives. Despite, whatever it is that is leaving you feeling anything but joy. Let's take a look at another Psalm. We discussed this Psalm in our podcast episode about anxiety, but it is so good. And it's good to reiterate here too. it's Psalm 94 verse 19, which tells us this when anxiety was great within me. Your constellation brought me joy. When anxiety was great within me, your constellation brought me joy, Psalm 94 verse 19. now we don't have time to dive into the root of anxiety today, but you can hear more about anxiety in our earlier podcast episode. It's called "How to Deal with Anxiety, Help When You Are Feeling Anxious". And as an episode you don't want to miss, but what I'd like to point out today is this. Notice the Psalmist, as he doesn't say when anxiety was gone. Or when anxiety was finally delivered from me, like we might expect in order to have joy. No, he's still felt anxious. With whatever he was facing and we're not told, but it was probably a situation or a circumstance. There was not what he had expected. It's now what he would have wanted. It was not what he would have chosen. It was not a situation that was anything. That was at all joyful. Can anyone relate? To a situation in your life. Now, or that is in your past. That was not, or has not been going like you would have chosen. I think we all can, but what I love about this particular Psalm, it helps us clearly see that joy was never meant to be this thing that's dependent on our circumstances or our situation. It is not a feeling. It's not a feeling that you sometimes have, and then you sometimes don't. The Psistalm is he felt anxious. Anxiety was great within me, we're told. Yet, he experienced the Lord's joy. When anxiety was great upon me. Your consolation brought me joy, your consolation. That's the Lord His comfort. He's consoling brought him joy. I want to pause for a second. And be careful as we're covering this. Cause I'm not at all trying to minimize or diminish any situation. That you may personally be facing in your life. And this is not a flippant, just be joyful, but a gentle reminder rooted in Scripture, like the Psalm that is possible to experience and have joy, despite whatever difficult situation or life circumstance you're facing. Because, like we touched on before, what happens is this, we can let our joy be this feeling or it's the state of emotion that we're always after. And when we do that, when we let this joy be this state of emotion that we are always after, we will find ourselves continuously doing things. Maybe it's buying things, going places, maybe grabbing that drink as we chase. After this joy that we are trying to continuously achieve. We've make it be something that was never meant to be. We let our circumstances, our situations, our families, careers, friends. the list can go on. When we let them be our source of joy. And I'll know these gifts. They can certainly be a gift from the Lord. They are not the source. Joy it is found in the presence of the Almighty. in the presence of his holy Word. And it's a condition of your heart, this calm delight. Regardless of whatever you are facing. So, is it possible to experience as joy like the Psalmist can we truly experience joy? This reason to rejoice this calm delight. All right, we'll come back to that in a second. But I want to take a look at some everyday situations that we can face that can steal our joy. All right. maybe it's broken relationships. If you or a loved one are facing a relationship that has been broken, maybe it's been broken by trust or unforgiveness. Broken by hurt or pain. Or maybe it's facing your health or the health of a loved one. And the worries that come alongside you, have started to steal your joy and that area of your life. Or perhaps it can be stress or stress of work. You know, you can find yourself stressed at work and we bring it home. We can find ourselves not emotionally present with our family. Maybe you know, you come home and you're physically there, but the worries of the day they ruminate and you find yourself passive and distracted. Or maybe it's not at all the situation you're facing, but a choice of how you spend your time. Maybe Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, the list can go on. We can get sucked into this false sense of, I just want to take time for myself then I've really, you know, then I'll be all right. All right. Or lastly, how about your cell phone? Did you ever find yourself constantly scrolling through social media? Checking your notifications, checking your email. Before, you know it, how much time is passed instead of the time you could've spent with your kids, your spouse, your loved ones. We could spend all day talking about that. So that's a topic for another time. But if any of those situations that ring true for you, or if you found yourself nodding in agreement, I want to encourage you not to believes the lies, that there is no hope or that you have to face it alone. Because remember your joy is found in the presence of the Almighty. It's a condition of your heart. this calm delight. And that is true. No matter what you are facing. even if you don't feel it. I hope this episode, I hope it helps shift your perspective today. And if you find yourself facing something that is leaving you feeling deep pain or hurt. Feeling anything but joy, you don't have to face it alone. It's possible to experience that joy, the chara, the calm, delight, this gladness. and a Stephen Minister walking alongside you can help you get there. Stephen ministry is a confidential and free ministry. Non-judgemental safe space. talking through it. Would they compassionate, trustworthy, Stephen Minister, maybe just what God has planned to help carry you through. If you feel broken right now. Through the cross of Jesus. God can make you whole. The heart of Stephen Ministry is rooted in the Biblical principle that Christ. Cares for people through people. And at St. Lorenz, we have a team of Stephen Ministers waiting to walk alongside you to support you to care for you. More information about our Stephen Ministry program can be found at Christ. It gives hope.org. If you're interested in Stephen Ministry for yourself or a loved, one more information can be found@christwhogiveshope.org. please take a moment to subscribe if you haven't. So you don't miss any future episodes. And a quick note, this is not medical advice. If you need professional care or care from a physician That is beyond the scope of Stephen Ministry. Thank you so much for listening. God's blessings to you.