Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Nehemiah said, The joy of the Lord is your strength. But how do I get the joy of the Lord? What if I don’t feel this joy for a long period of time? Hello, friend. This is Grace in Focus. So glad you are joining us today. We are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. Many ways that you can learn about us there. We also do YouTube videos. Our channel is YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society. So sign up and enjoy those videos. And once again, our website faithalone.org.

Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here is Bob Wilkin, along with Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob. We’ve got a question. We’ll just call him H. and the question is two-part question. What is the joy of the Lord? And what does it mean if I go through long periods of not feeling joy? 

BOB: Okay, so the joy of the Lord that exact expression only occurs in Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse 10. And this is dealing with a remnant who had returned to Israel and they were to have a celebratory meal together. They were to eat the fat, the choicest cuts of meat and drink. How does it go? 

SAM: Drink the sweet. 

BOB: Drink the sweet, which probably referred to a sweet wine, a wine that had maybe honey in it. 

SAM: No sweet tea? 

BOB: No sweet tea. And they were to share this with neighbors who didn’t have the ability to enjoy this celebratory meal. And then it ends by saying, doesn’t it, the joy of the Lord— 

SAM: It says, do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord is your strength. 

BOB: So I would suggest that that verse in Nehemiah is simply saying that these celebratory meals remind the people of God’s blessings in the past and his blessings to come. It certainly should remind them of the coming Messiah and the coming kingdom. And that should bring them joy. Now that that expression doesn’t occur anywhere else to the joy of the Lord. We do have rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. What is that Philippians 4:4? So with that verse, our attitude should be one of constant thankfulness and constant rejoicing, even in difficult times, probably especially in difficult times. In fact, that answers the second half of this question. What happens if I go through extended periods of time where I lack joy? 

SAM: Well, I says, what does it mean if I go through long periods of not feeling joy? So really, I think there’s even there. There’s two questions. What does it mean? And then what does it mean to feel joy? 

BOB: Okay, there’s a difference between feeling joy and being joyful. Lots of people have said that being happy is somewhat an up and down experience because your circumstances may be terrible. You know, you may get in a serious accident, your lover may get in a serious accident, you may be going through a terrible illness, cancer or whatever. And yet, we’re to be joyful in all those times because our joy supersedes our circumstances. 

And so I would say what it means is probably if a person is going through a long period of time without joy, either they’ve got a misunderstanding of what joy is. In other words, they’re thinking, well, I’m not really happy. You can go through years or decades of not being happy, but yet you can be joyful, right? If I was in prison, I probably wouldn’t be happy, but I could certainly be joyful, especially if I was being persecuted and mistreated while I was in prison, like the people in the concentration camps in World War II. 

SAM: Well, and like Paul, Paul’s in prison for a big part of his ministry. He was physically persecuted for the Lord, but he never stopped rejoicing. So he might not have been happy and smiling while he’s getting beaten or whatever, but I guarantee that he was rejoicing and praising the Lord through all of it. 

BOB: Yeah, exactly. And the other thing to keep in mind is there is such a thing as depression. People go through depression. Now, temporary depression is one thing, but depression that lasts, I’m not sure what the length of time is. I think it’s like three to six months, but after that length of time, you become clinically depressed. And while I think it’s clear that in America today, we overprescribe medicine for depression. I think it’s also clear that there’s a lot of people dealing with depression. 

If a person is going through an extended period of time without joy, then they should consider possibly, I’m clinically depressed. If that’s the case, at the very least, they should get some counseling, go see your pastor, go see a professional Christian counselor, that kind of thing. Possibly they should take medication. Now, that’s very controversial. There are people in evangelical circles who would say, you should never take medicine for psychological reasons. I disagree with that. I understand why people say that. I realize they’re overprescribed, but some people are dealing with depression or they’re dealing with PTSD or they’ve got obsessive compulsive disorder. And a lot of these people, if they don’t take medication, they won’t be able to think straight. 

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SAM: I want to go back to his question. What does it mean if I go through long periods of not feeling joy? Because he’s not talking about not feeling happy, he’s specifically saying joy. What does that mean for a believer? If I believe in Jesus Christ for everlasting life, I know that I can never lose it, it can never be taken from me, but I go a year or, you know, a season where I just don’t feel joy. I don’t feel the joy of the Lord. What does that mean for a believer? 

BOB: Well, let’s look at this two ways. One way is what if this is a person who’s walking in fellowship with the Lord, which I think this questioner is coming from that perspective. If for a long period of time they haven’t experienced joy, yet they are walking in fellowship with the Lord. I would then look into causes for this, physical causes for this. Maybe they’ve had some sort of brain injury. Maybe they’re not getting sufficient sleep for whatever reason, which obviously causes problems, but there could be a lot of reasons why the person was going through depression and things like that. 

But the other issue is what if the person is out of fellowship with God? Well, if the person is out of fellowship with God, then it’s going to be hard to rejoice in the Lord at all. 

And so, the easier answer is, what if the person is out of fellowship with God? The harder answer is what if the person is in church, they are a person who’s seeking God, they’re desiring to please him, and yet they’re not a joyful person. I would then look in the realm of depression, because that’s probably what we’re dealing with there. It’s possible the person, I mean, this question might come from a lack of understanding of what joy means. 

SAM: That’s what I was going to say. 

BOB: They may mean happiness. 

SAM: Yeah, I think that’s where I would go first, is say, do I understand the difference between joy and happiness? And look at examples of people in the Bible, like Paul, like Peter, Old Testament saints too, Job, who suffered, they weren’t happy, but they rejoiced in the Lord. David, and a lot of the Psalms. So look at those examples and see, okay, does this look like me? Am I sad? Am I depressed? Am I suffering? Am I missing people? But I trust God. I love God. I know He loves me. I know I’m secure. Because that’s joy. Even if you’re not smiling, even if it doesn’t feel happy, you’re not laughing and whatever, you know, that’s joy. But then if you’re struggling still, then yes, look at some other cases. 

But then the other thing you said about being in fellowship with God, I think that’s a big one. And I think if you don’t have assurance, then I don’t see how you can have joy in the Lord. So that’s something, I don’t think that’s the issue with this questioner, but a lot of the people that call or send emails, you know, even if they disagree with us, they’re asking us because they don’t have any kind of assurance. And I think a lot of people are desperate for it. And that’s to me where the joy of the Lord and the strength of the Lord is. 

BOB: Okay. Now I really strongly agree with that. And I’d like to, you use the expression, any kind of assurance. And let me suggest that it’s important. Well, first of all, I wholeheartedly agree that if a person lacks assurance, it’s going to be almost impossible to be joyful because you’re wondering, where am I going to spend eternity? Am I going to spend eternity in the lake of fire? And if that’s the way you’re thinking, it’s awful hard to rejoice in the Lord always. 

But the second part of that, I think in terms of assurance is ultimately, assurance is either I’ve got it or I’ve not got it. It’s like the light switch. It’s either on or it’s off, unless you’ve got a dimmer switch. So I’m thinking of just on or off with no dimmer switch. You either know for sure you have eternal life or you don’t know you have everlasting life. If you know you’ve got everlasting life, you have assurance. I’m not sure, but there are people who talk about full assurance, you know, and they’ll talk about other things. 

But then you might have meant when you were talking about any kind of assurance, there’s assurance that lots of different topics too, right? Like there’s not only assurance of eternal life, but assurance that God is blessing me, assurance that right now I’m walking in the light. 

SAM: Yeah, I’d say any of the promises that Christ made and a lot of them are, they’re all together, but I think examining the different ones can be helpful and that can reassure you. We talk about that a lot, go read the Gospel of John, go examine the promises He made, dwell on those things, pray about it. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, we were just in Philippians chapter 4 and he uses the phrase, “the peace that surpasses all understanding” or “peace beyond all understanding”. To me, that’s intertwined with joy. There’s no reason to be peaceful and joyful in this world, if you don’t know that you have a Savior who loves you and has secured you for all of eternity, so.

BOB: That’s very good. And one of the things to keep in mind is there are seasons of life, and depending on your season of life, it might be harder to have happiness. Like if you’re in a season where you’re under a lot of stress, that’s difficult. Maybe you’re in a season where you’re losing loved ones. You’re in a season where you’re going through losing jobs, whatever, you could still be joyful, but the happiness is not so much. 

SAM: Yeah, but I don’t think Christ ever promised happiness to those who suffered with them. I think you’re promised a lot of things, but… 

BOB: No, you’re right. Okay, well, thanks so much, H, and thank you all for listening in. And let’s remember to keep grace in focus. 

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Well, friend, we thank you for joining us all this week on grace in focus. We’ll have more questions and answers for you next week. We hope you’ll join us again, and in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.