Every girl wants to be really, truly happy, right? I know I certainly do! Sometimes joy and happiness seems easy to come by… but on rough days and during certain trials, joy and happiness can seem like an impossibility. However, after picking up my Bible and reading some Truths from God’s Word, I have found that joy and happiness can be found at any time -IF we look for it in the right places, and IF we CHOOSE to be joyful.
So, if you’re looking for joy and happiness, or you just want a little extra joy in your life…read on, my friend. I found the secrets and I am going to share them with you right now!
5 Keys to Lasting Joy and Happiness
Key to Joy #1: Salvation
“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness…” Isaiah 6:10
If you have been born again, if you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior… you can REJOICE! If you are trusting in Jesus Christ and Him alone, then you can have incredible joy knowing you have been clothed with “the garments of salvation”. You don’t need to fear eternity, your future is secure. You can have so much joy knowing you have a wonderful future ahead of you. No matter what happens, you will one day be in Heaven with the Lord.
I don’t know about you… but I don’t do a very good job of being joyful about my salvation or being joyful in my God. It’s something I need to work on.
Just know this: Whenever you and I are lacking joy, we can remember what Christ has done for us on the cross and be joyful because we have a bright future ahead of us! We have been clothed with “the garments of salvation” and covered in a “robe of righteousness”. Heaven is our future and sin is no longer our master. What a promise… we have so much to be joyful about!
How to apply this: If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, ask the Lord to fill you with the joy of your salvation. The next time you are lacking joy, remember the bright future you have ahead of you!!
Key to Joy #2: Living Right
“…the righteous doth sing and rejoice.” Proverbs 29:6
The second key is living right. When we follow God’s commands and seek to live a righteous life, it will bring us joy! There is nothing quite like a clear conscious, and knowing that we are living in a right relationship with God. Serving the Lord, and doing good deeds for others, is a sure-fire way to add joy to our life.
So, have you been lacking joy? Examine your life… are obeying God’s commands? Are you serving others?
How to apply this: Identify any areas of your life where you are not living “righteously”. Confess those areas to the Lord, ask Him to help you change it, and start living according to God’s ways. Start serving God and others and you will see your joy increase!
Key to Joy #3: Seeking the Lord
“Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee…” Psalm 40:16
Seeking the Lord will also bring us joy. Spending time reading the Bible, walking with the Lord, and talking to Him through prayer, will increase our joy. I think we all know deep down inside, that Jesus is the only One who can supply us with the joy and happiness we crave, but do we live that way? I know I don’t! I wish I could say that Jesus is my constant source of joy and contentment, but so often I seek those things in other places.
Psalm 16:11 says…
“Thou wilt show me the path of life, in thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever more.”
So, if we are lacking joy we need to look at our time and see how much of it has been given to Jesus. How often are we in the Word walking with the Lord? How much of our time is spent talking with the One who can give us pleasures for ever more? It is in HIS presence that we find fulness of joy… we cannot experience full joy unless we are spending time in His presence!
How to apply it: Start spending more time with God. Read His Word, pray and talk to Him. When we begin to experience His presence we will begin to experience His joy!
Key to Joy #4: Prayer
“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:24
Another key to joy is prayer.
It is through prayer that we have access to God. As young women we can go to God with our troubles and concerns, and He will listen. He wants us to bring our requests before Him, and it will bring us joy to do so. We can even pray about joy! We can ask the Lord to fill us with His joy. We can ask Him to make us joyful young women.
We can pray and ask Him about anything. What things could you start praying about? Here are some suggestions…
- Pray about your friendships
- Pray for unsaved friends and family members
- Pray about your personal struggles
- Pray for your pastor and your church
- Pray about your future
- Pray about anything and everything
How to apply it: Pray for specific things and you will see God answer in specific ways! When you pray for something and you see God answer it… you will be so full of an indescribable joy! Trust me (or shall I say, trust God!) give it a try – prayer really works!
Key to Joy #5: Trusting the Lord
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.” Psalm 28:7
“For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.” Psalm 33:21
I remember a specific time in my life where I was going through a really tough and confusing time. I didn’t know what was going to happen and typically, I would have been an emotional, worried mess. However, in that particular situation, I decided to trust God and not worry about it any more. You know what happened? I was filled with SO much joy, peace, and contentment. It was an indescribable feeling. Looking back, I know I was able to have so much joy because I decided just to trust God with the outcome.
It’s clear in God’s Word that those who trust in God are very joyful. Joy comes from placing all our trust in God. In any area of our life, no matter how small, when we choose to trust God, we choose joy as well!
How to apply it: Whatever is stealing your joy today… decide to turn it over to God. Whether it’s a tough decision, scary circumstance, or worries about the future, talk to God and turn it all over to Him. When we truly trust God, our fear and worry can be replaced with peace and joy!
One More Thought
There are other “keys to joy” found in the Bible, but I’ll stop with those five. One of my favorite verses is John 10:10 where Jesus says He has come to give us life, and that we might have it more “abundantly”. An abundant, joyful Christian life is God’s plan for us! It can be tough to maintain a joyful attitude but it’s worth it. Plus, we have the keys to joy found right in God’s Word!
I Would Love to Know
- Do yo ever struggle to have joy?
- Do you know of any other “keys to joy”?
- Which one of the “keys” do you struggle with the most?
Feel free to leave your answers and thoughts in the comments!
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Since we’re sharing ways to have joy…it made me think of John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (It kind of goes along with your #2 of living right.)
We can’t be living right if we do not have love towards everyone. This one may seem small, but in reality it’s HUGE. To me (By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples) means that lacking love, could hinder our testimony or reputation as a happy and joyful Christian. If we come across as ugly in our hearts, not being able to forgive, let go, and move on from the “wrongs” we may feel have been done to us, it doesn’t make for a joyful Christian. I’ve learned through different times, that just being able to let things go, helps me be much more joyful than trying to give “paybacks,” or say hurtful things, or try to make little statements towards another to show that they hurt me. It shouldn’t make me happier to speak ill of someone else, or make a “dig” towards them, if my heart is right, living right in God’s sight.
I guess I feel that it’s a key that (especially girls) can seem to forget, (because I know how catty and competitive and at times spiteful we can be.) And it never made me feel “happy and joyful” to be holding something against someone else, ESPECIALLY another brother or sister in Christ. Loving and forgiveness (living right) can truly set you free to love God and have the right relationship with Him! 🙂 Without being able to do that, we can’t truly be living right, in a Christ-like way…we don’t want others to “see through us,” knowing what is in our hearts, it’s more than an “act” or a “smile” to put on around others. It’s more than looking like a Christian on the outside and participating in church functions. We must remember all humans can read through our actions. An action is the result of what’s in our heart. God looks in our hearts, and it’s important to make sure our changes our genuinely coming from the heart. I just wanted to share 🙂 God Bless! 🙂
I agree that forgiveness is huge in helping us have joy! When we have unforgiveness in our hearts, it’s almost impossible to have true joy
Hello! I wasn’t sure if you knew only 5 keys showed up on this list? 🙂
Oops, thanks for pointing that out… I fixed the title 🙂
There’s a verse in Psalm 51 (the “confession psalm” 🙂) that kind of combines the first two keys. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation…” (v. 12). To expand on what you already said, Rebekah — we’re probably harboring some unconfessed sin if we lack that special joy. I guess some visible signs of this would be feeling ungrateful to the Lord, or unaffected in His presence (like there’s a big disconnect between us and Him, whereas we usually enjoy being with Him), or unconcerned about whether He’s pleased with our day, or even just independent — those can be red flags that we’ve let sin divide us from Him.
I just had another thought while writing. WE rob ourselves of His joy; nothing or no one else can truly steal it otherwise! Christian martyrs have held onto it despite their enemies’ attempts (many incredible stories show this!) and certainly the Lord never changes or draws away from us. So, how great to have those verses in Scripture that point us back to the path, to the fullness of joy in His presence! (Psalm 16:11 has to be one of my favorite verses by the way!… 🙂)
Emily , “The Confession Psalm” is a great point! 🙂 I really like how you’ve compared joy being absent due to our un-confessed sin. We also find healing through confessing to those who we’ve wronged – James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Even if we feel we’re “the victim,” we should pray for those who’ve “wronged” us. It’s just so freeing to confess our sins. It’s frees us to move on and be genuinely joyful! I read this comment and it was just too good to let go! 🙂
Thanks, January. You’ve been sharing some great thoughts as well. (James 5:16 actually came up several times for me this past week; I’m taking that as something from the Lord! 🙂) Have a lovely weekend!
I like both comments, Emily yours also seems to compliment January’s. “Un-confessed sin” is the killer of joy, and can hinder the joy of your salvation. January, I consider holding grudges and harboring ugly feelings inside towards others an “un-confessed sin” as well. So it got me to thinking of some actions that we can make to fix things like that in our life.
1. Prayer… praying for forgiveness of our short comings…This leads me to
2. Admitting my faults (as a human I am not perfect.) My faults could mean anything from arguments to holding grudges, to even thinking I am “right.” (and many more) However being able to admit my imperfections and faults to OTHERS is necessary as well. One way to remind ourselves of this is that it takes two people to have a disagreement or an argument. We are always at fault for something in those situations, even if it means we have a bad attitude.
3. Conducting myself as a Christian even if I don’t feel nice towards someone. Not intentionally trying to hurt them (even if they’ve hurt me,) being able to treat them as though nothing happened (even if something did.)
It’s so disappointing to me to see young ladies who act “godly” at church, and then you find in some other way their true colors are coming out. There are so many more ways these days to be “indirect” and ugly towards someone. It could mean ignoring someone and making them feel “uncomfortable.” By giving suggestive remarks without naming names pertaining to situations. It isn’t always by being rude towards someone face to face (It can be by gossiping about them or giving digs on social media, which I’ve seen a lot of in the past.) Knowing girls that would post quotes or pictures dedicated to a particular situation to cause attention drawn to particular people.) There are so many ways to act unlike Christ, that Christian ladies need to start thinking out of the box on how they could “improve” a bad situation or act differently towards others, even if they do or don’t feel that they are at fault. It’s a much better testimony of a Christian lady, and sometimes you find that you’re joy comes from relieving uncomfortable situations rather than adding to it in sinful ways even if they are direct or indirect.
I think if we looked into the root of our lives GENUINELY and PRAYERFULLY, we’d all find that we could take many lessons on living right.
The fruits
That posted before I was finished. I wanted to add that “The fruits of the Spirit” are some great keys to happiness and joy. We should all pray that we become much more like that! 🙂
Thank you for the unique reminder to think outside the box! 🙂 Continuing this thought of testimony and representing Christ (though I know it’s a tangent! 😉)… It’s tough to know sometimes what will worsen a problem and what will help relieve it; a lot’s at stake, because associating with something wrong or just not saying anything is sin too and will mar our credibility for Christ. Our testimonies are precious but I think often we confuse them with our reputations / our pride. Something we SHOULD say as God-fearing Christian young women might make us look out-of-place or feel awkward… not good gauges at all! 🙂
I would love to hear more thoughts on practical ways to strengthen our Christian testimony, so that the Lord can speak through us to others. Keeping a short account with Him and letting His joy shine through us is a start…
I agree, Rebekah! There are often times when I feel myself feeling sorry for myself and not having joy! I often find that I do that when I start looking around at my circumstances and get my eyes off of Christ!
Hi Elizabeth, I dare say most of us WOULD think we deserved to feel sorry for ourselves if we were in your circumstances, but… the honest-yet-positive outlook and faith you’ve shown instead are an amazing testimony for the Lord (and an example for us here and on Instagram!). You’re such an encouragement. Just thought you should know. ❤️
Emily, thank you so much for those encouraging words! I’ve seen you comment on here before, but didn’t know you were on Instagram follower 🙂 I’m having one of those bad days, physically, so you words were just what I needed!
Sorry to hear you’ve had a rough day! 😞 I pray you’ll feel better tonight and gain new strength for tomorrow.
Oh, Instagram… that’s a long story to tell. (Maybe someday? 😄) Hugs from TN!
Thanks so much! And haha, I would love to hear the story anytime lol
I enjoyed reading this post, Rebekah! 🙂 I have the struggle of not reading my Bible more. I am trying to work on doing more Bible reading each day. The best time for me to relax and pray is usually in the evening when I’m in bed … but I need to pray more. I appreciate your prayers for me. I’m praying for you as well! 🙂 <3
Keep it up, Rosalyn (Galatians 5:9). God will bless your faithfulness! 🙂 Thank you for the prayers sweet friend! ♥
I totally know what you mean when you mention the indescribable joy that God brings! It’s so beautiful! :’) Yes, I do struggle with finding God’s joy, but when I do experience, it’s amazing! 😀 I think I struggle with reading the Bible the most? I procrastinate too much, and I know how important it is to learn about God through His Word!
I can relate, Sarah! I want to read my Bible more… but I procrastinate as well. I always let other (less important) things consume my time instead!
Girls, I LOVE your comments and hearing all your thoughts! You all hit on some very “key” things that bring joy back into our lives! I am so thankful for each one of you… my day is made every time I get to read a new comment! So sorry about not responding to all the comments this week!
I know I don’t always have the joy of the Lord, but I know I should be. It’s hard sometimes.
Yes, it can be hard… you aren’t the only one!
Thanks for the thoughts on joy. I have found trusting in God and resting in Him to bring so much joy in my life! It’s so natural to want to carry my own load and try to fix things rather than trust Him. When I’m not trusting I realize I’m focusing on my self and how big my problem is rather than focusing how great God is. It’s amazing how much more joy I have when trusting Him even though the circumstances remain unchanged!
Yes!! So true! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!