TARA WENTWORTH: The joy of the Lord (2024)

I am reading a book that my small group at church is going through called Igniting Joy in 40 Days by Steve Backlun

He brings out some fresh insights on joy and how to increase joy on our lives. If there ever was a time when we need to understand the power of joy in our lives, it is now. We are in times where it would be easy to become depressed, discouraged or even hopeless.

Most of us know a couple of scriptures about the joy of the Lord, but are we actually living in that reality? The joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10) – we need joy to fight the daily battles that all of us face. A merry heart is good medicine (Proverbs 17:21) – for our souls and our body. I decided to put a reminder on my phone – to take my daily dose of joy! I have had a reminder on my phone for several years now reminding me to be thankful – I ask myself “What am I thankful for today?” Sometimes we forget about the most important things in our lives and a daily reminder or dose of joy and thankfulness can help us to get refocused on what really matters!

If one third of the Kingdom of God is Joy (Romans 14:17), it must be pretty important! Steve says: “To pursue joy (not be passive about it), we must overcome negative mindsets limiting our lives (victimhood, unworthiness, pessimism, impulsiveness, fear, offense, disappointment, etc.)” In His presence is fullness of joy. (Psalm 16:11) “We may not be outrageously joyful every time we are in His presence, but if we are never joyful in His presence, then we may not be in His presence as much as we think we are.”

Part of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 is joy. Backlund reminds us that “if we are regularly not experiencing joy, the first thing we need to evaluate is our connection to the Lord.” John 15 talks about us abiding in the vine and if you are severed from the life flow (Jesus) the fruit will wither up and die. I don’t know about you, but being around people who are negative and joyless is not something I enjoy or desire to pursue.

Paul exhorts us to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) Steve explains that “A lack of joy is like the Check Engine Light on a car. It shows that something is wrong which needs to be fixed. We don’t ignore that light when it starts flashing and so it should be when we constantly lack joy in our lives – we need to do something.”

I really like Steve’s definition of joy. “The childlike wonder and excitement of working God instead of working God.” Jesus Himself stated that we must become childlike to even enter the Kingdom of God. Most of us grew up with a mindset that believes we have to be perfect to be pleasing to God. Performance-based religion cannot produce a joyful heart. Rather it produces a negative mindset of a slave or an orphan. We are sons and daughters of our Father God and His desire is for us to walk and live in joy. When we develop those child-like tendencies to live in excitement, anticipation and adventure, we can’t help but be joyful people! I know this may be a new concept for some of you, but Jesus wants to partner with us and have fun doing it! Religion has kept us focused on our performance, fear of not doing it right and therefore creating a false identity of who He created us to be.

Psalm 16:11 states “In His presence is fullness of joy.” Evidently, the Lord wants us to experience an abundance of joy. I Peter 1 describes our salvation as “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away that will be fully revealed in the last time.” Then Peter says: “In this you greatly rejoice (vs.6) … at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love (vs.8) … Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory (vs.9).” Have you ever experienced that kind of joy? Would the scriptures describe something that was impossible to experience? I don’t believe the scriptures are describing something that is only for the future, after we die and go to heaven.

Paul exhorts the Roman church at the end of his epistle to them: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) Hebrews calls hope the anchor of our souls. When we are anchored in believing, we are filled with hope, then joy and peace increases as well. Hope sets our eyes on the Author of our faith, not on the circ*mstances which might be contrary to the outcome we desire.

Dr. Pieter Lagaay is a contributing author in this book. He has a string of letters behind his name including many scientific degrees in the medical field so he can verify what Backlund and the scripture states with scientific evidence. He states that “joy produces an increase in dopamine in our brains which also gives an increased ability to learn.” Perhaps Jesus used this to create an atmosphere so that His disciples could embrace His teachings and become all they were meant to be! He stated that: “The discovery of different ways of experiencing joy is a lifelong process. It is always an opportunity to hear from God and receive revelation from Him.” He noted that when the Declaration of Independence was drafted it stated that “the government would never take away a person’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He made an interesting observation concerning the word “pursuit” from an article by a historian stating that “the word pursuit should be understood to refer to the same meaning as ‘the pursuit of law’ or ‘the pursuit of medicine.’ That is, pursuit refers to practice or vocation… in other words, a person should never be restricted from practicing joy and happiness because it is essential to his/her independence as a person and our identity as a nation!” Our right to be joyful was given to us by God and confirmed by our founding fathers! I think we have lost that profound understanding and we must begin to pursue this revelation again – for our own sake and for the sake of our country.

If this article is speaking to you I would highly recommend you order the book or at least visit Backlund’s web site: www.ignitinghopeacademy.com.

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