Where can I get joy from?

Well it’s that time of year, what is called the season of Joy. The nights are drawing in, it’s cold and this year it just won’t stop raining! Now if you are like me, someone who hates being cold and hates rain, especially when it’s constant, then this weather and limited sunlight makes you feel a bit sad rather than joyful. By now you can probably tell that I don’t really like winter!

Highlights

However even though I’m not a fan of winter, I have to say that I have experienced joy and fun times this year. I’ve had fun days out with my family, had lovely meals out with friends and enjoyed each other’s company, enjoyed date nights with my husband, been fortunate to have been on a couple of holidays, I've spread the word of God through preaching at church, helped people grow in their faith, celebrated with my son when he won a writing competition, went to an inspiring women’s conference and tried axe throwing, to name a few. 

An experience that stuck out this year was going to Rend Collective’s concert. It brought me great joy because it was an amazing concert. They also performed their song that I like, called The Joy of the Lord. The title of the song is taken from a book in the Bible called Nehemiah. 

Joy

In the Book of Nehemiah, the people had just finished rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem. Now that was complete. Nehemiah, who was the governor and Ezra, who was the priest and religious teacher realised that the people also need to be "rebuilt" spiritually. This was because they had allowed a lot of sin to enter their lives by choosing to be disobedient to God. Ezra set about teaching the people by reading the Book of the Law to them. These were rules that God had given them so they would live a life that would please God.

The people had neglected and ignored God's laws, so when Ezra reminded them of the laws, they got really sad because they realised their ignorance and disobedience. As a result they felt bad, were repentant and then they cried… a lot. They confessed their sins, renewed their relationship of God’s laws and vowed to follow them.

After days of reading the laws, Nehemiah, Ezra and the people celebrated the Feast of the Tabernacles to celebrate God’s faithfulness to them. As the people were still crying because of their guilt of disobeying God, Nehemiah told them “The day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” [...] “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:9-10). So the people ate and drank sweet drinks and celebrated “with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them” (Nehemiah 8:12). 

The people in Jerusalem had a fun time with their families and friends during the feast celebration. This is what God wanted for them because He had just restored them, he wanted them to feel joy with each other. However, the great joy they felt was the joy they had in God. This is because, as the scripture says, they finally understood the words of God’s law that had been told to them by Ezra. Their mind and spirit had been renewed. God wants us to have joy in Him because the joy that God brings us is constant and consistent. 

Joy in people, while it is nice, can never match the joy of the Lord because people are inconsistent, people can change, people will fail you and people will let you down. God will never do any of that. By relying on joy solely from people, will mean that you will go through ups and down on your joy journey. Sometimes they will make you feel joy, sometimes they will make you feel disappointment and sadness. Joy of the Lord is just that… joy!

Joy through suffering

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” - Psalm 28:7

If you are a follower of Christ then you know full well, what our saviour promised us in life? Yes, that’s it… suffering! This is why we need to have the joy of the Lord. Joy is a strength and the joy of the Lord is a super strength! As said earlier God is consistent and constant, so joy in Him will give you the strength to get through your battles, struggles and suffering.

When you are down, sad or depressed then it can feel that you will never win any of our battles and will never get through your suffering. However, the joy of the Lord can increase your energy and your drive because you know that due to your faith and your full surrender to the Lord, that He saved you, He restored you and He will never leave you or abandon you. This will push you to praise Him through your tears and dance and sing about the Lord through your trials and illnesses. This will give you the strength to keep going because you know Christ is beside you. 

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” - Proverbs 17:22

Christmas

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (God with us).” - Isaiah 7:14

As I mentioned earlier we are in the season of Joy, the Christmas season. During this time most of us will be busy buying gifts, seeing family and friends, completing the challenge of cooking the Christmas dinner and if you are like me also going to a church carol service.

Unfortunately some people will let you down during this season. They may let you down, every time you see them at Christmas and you hoped that year would finally be different to the previous years because they are your family member or “friend” after all.  Therefore, the joy you get through them will disappear. 

Some people will not see this season as joyous because they will be alone, or they will be surrounded by problematic people and feel lonely, or it reminds them of past trauma around this time of the year or of loved ones who have died and won’t be around the table having turkey with them.

It’s important to remember, amid the busyness, fun and sadly at times sorrow, that this season is for the remembrance of the birth of our saviour and the reason why we can actually find joy in the Lord; because as gentiles (who are not God’s original chosen people) we have given access to God the Father, through our saviour, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The power of Jesus

Jesus, the sinless God the Son, came down to earth to be born as a human, to a virgin girl in Bethlehem. Then three decades later He died a horrific death for all our sins, because God the Father knew we would never stop sinning and we needed our debt to Him to be paid in some way before we die. Jesus then rose from the dead on the third day. Jesus then stayed on the earth for a further 40 days and was seen by over 500 people. Jesus then ascended to heaven and is now seated on the right hand side of the Father. Jesus will return to the earth, on a date that only God the Father knows, to judge everyone living and dead and decide who will get to have eternal life with God on the renewed earth and who will be thrown into the lake of fire.

If you truly believe the above is true and truly believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son, your Lord and saviour and is your only access to God the Father. Then when you repent of our sins (which is a lifelong practice not only just done once in your life), which means saying sorry to God the Father, through Jesus through your prayers and telling God that you’ll try really hard to not do that bad behaviour or bad habit again. You will receive the Holy Spirit within you, go to heaven when you die and it also means that you will be able to find the joy of the Lord while you are alive.

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” - 1 Peter 1:8–9

Jesus- our access to the Father and our joy

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13

You believing and confessing that Jesus is Lord and your personal saviour, means you can get constant joy from God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, whenever you need it. Joy of the Lord will get you through the Christmas season, if you will find it hard. Joy of the Lord will also get you through any struggle, big or small, way after the Christmas and New Year’s season is done and the decorations are down. This is because the Lord will be with you through it all. So remember that the joy of the Lord is your strength!

I hope you have a joyous and restful Christmas and remember the reason for the season, which is Jesus Christ. 

On a personal note, thank you for all the support for this blog, during its first six months (wow time has flown by!). 

When God placed on my heart to start the blog, I delayed for a very long time and when I actually started I thought it would just be for my family and friends. The blog has exceeded my expectations and has reached people in countries, around the world, that I never imagined would want to read a blog from little old me! 

Your stories of how the blog has personally helped you on your healing journey or helped you connect or re-connect with God inspires me to keep writing. So thank you all, have a happy New Year and lets continue this in 2026! x