Hey Sue, this is such a great question and in many ways, links in with what I was talking about on Sunday (delighting ourselves in the Lord). My very simple answer to your question “should we as followers of Christ be able to maintain joy” is… no… and yes!
However, let me start with something I would say if we were sitting and chatting together in person. God has made us all whole (or unified) beings. As a result, what happens in our physical bodies, our emotional world, or our sleep (or a hundred-and-one-other aspects of the complex systems that make us human) will have an effect on what we term joy! Take sleep for example . Three or four nights of insomnia (lack of sleep) and we will be struggling on the joy front! So, if you have been experiencing joylessness for some time, I would strongly recommend that you go to the GP. There may be something going on medically that needs attention and doctors are part of God’s good care of people (do I hear an Amen!).
However, assuming that the GP gives you a clean bill of health, is it possible to maintain your joy? I would still say “No …. and Yes” and this is why?
Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit (see Gal. 5:22). This is a brilliant metaphor (or word picture) to help us understand how joy works in the life of a Christan. Paul is saying that joy is not some instant deposit that you get when you become a follower of Jesus. No, like love, peace, kindness and all the other fruits of the Spirit, joy is meant to grow! This means that joy is not a binary thing (switching it on or off) but is rather something that can be measured more on a scale like: very little… a little more … more still … feeling full, etc. This reality, in itself, means we need to recognise that joy can ebb and flow over time until … well you’ll have to wait till the end of this mardle post to find out! Secondly, Paul is wanting us to see that joy does not belong to us but is rather the work of the Holy Spirit within us. This is crucial. This shows us that joy is a fruit (so to speak) of a relationship with the Third person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit). Or putting it differently, as you walk with the Holy Spirit, his characteristics ‘rub off’ on you and me and we become more and more like Him. This is why Paul finishes his fruit of the spirit passage with this: ‘Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit‘ (Gal 5:25). As a result, joy (along with all the other fruits of the spirit) are very much relationally dependent.
In Hebrews 12 we read these amazing words: ‘For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart’ (v2-3). Do you see how the writer to the Hebrews wants us to look at the life of Jesus as our model? Jesus was motivated by future joy (a redeemed people from every nation and tongue), but that future joy took him into present pain and suffering. So when Jesus was suffering on the cross, was he joy-filled? I think his anguished cries and sense of abandonment have to make us say “no… but…”. No he was not joy-filled, but he was future joy-motivated. He knew that the cross led to future joy and so he endured the present suffering for the joy of what was to come. As a result, there may well be seasons of life where we are led (like Jesus was) to cross-like circumstances, where we need to live for future joy. Let me give you an example… working in a place where you are almost daily mocked for your Christian beliefs… but you are living for the future joy of one or two of those work colleagues turning from mockers to worshippers of Jesus. Isn’t that suffering worth enduring? Do you see how future joy can give shape to present suffering?
The final thing to say is … there is a day coming when joy will become the everlasting and constant in our lives (Ps 16:11). When we see Jesus face to face (1 Cor 13:12b) and dwell in his house forever (John 14:2-3) . Let’s never lose sight of this future joy, because it sets all of our days now in an eternal joy-filled perspective.
So Sue, I hope this has helped you think a little more about joy in the context of walking in relationship with the Holy Spirit and the importance of living with future joy shaping seasons of present pain and suffering.