This week, the blog is sponsored by Moody Publishers. Let this be the beginning of your journey to recovering your joy. Order your copy of I Choose Joy by Chip Ingram here.
Who is the most joyful person you know? How do you feel when you’re around them? I light up when I think of the most joyful people I know. They’re fun to be around; the atmosphere changes when they walk into a room. I can feel down and struggling, and after ten minutes with one of them, something shifts inside of me. Their joy is contagious, encouraging. But something has happened in the last several years. The joy quotient for most people, even followers of Jesus, has taken a dive. Without rehashing all the negative long-term outcomes of Covid, let’s be honest, it was like a dark cloud that hovered over the whole earth, and some of us continue to be affected by it to this day.
My own joy level took a dramatic dip over the last few years after two back surgeries. Toward the end of that recovery, my wife, Theresa, said in a very kind but penetrating way, “Do you realize how negative you’ve become?” I shot back a quick defensive response, explaining all the difficult circumstances that I’d been through. But her words stung and stuck deep in my heart. The truth is, I was complaining inside, even when I wasn’t saying anything negative on the outside. My internal self-talk was critical of myself and just about everything and everyone else.
Joy isn’t just possible, it’s commanded: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men” (Phil. 4:4–5).
During this time, God led me to teach Philippians 1 to a group at the Billy Graham Conference Center in Asheville, North Carolina. I knew the material, but I had no idea what the material was going to do to me. It’s one thing to talk about joy, teach about joy, know how joy is supposed to work; but it’s quite another to really experience. As I studied the text, I was reminded of Nehemiah’s words that “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). My research led me to a classic C. S. Lewis quote where he reminds us that “Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”
As we dove into the context of this passage. The apostle Paul was in prison, writing this letter. He was awaiting execution, or acquittal—he had no idea which it would be. He had been abandoned by close friends, betrayed by fellow Christians who used his imprisonment to criticize him and promote themselves, and was enduring the conditions of a first-century prison. In this short chapter, Paul gives us his secret of joy in any and every circumstance. He helps us understand that it’s a matter of focus, a matter of purpose, a matter of hope, and a matter of expectations.
Joy isn’t just possible, it’s commanded: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men” (Phil. 4:4–5).
I don’t know what’s going on in your life, but I do know the “Joy Quotient” among fellow followers of Jesus has taken a big hit. Certain things happen in life that we have no control over. Many of those things are painful and disappointing. How we look at them will make all the difference in the world.
May God, in His grace, allow you and me to learn from our brother the apostle Paul how to “choose joy” regardless of what’s happening around us or to us. My prayer is that when someone who knows you is asked, “Who is the most joyful person that you know?” their answer would be you.
Order your copy of I Choose Joy by Chip Ingram here.
