How to Break the “Happiness Curse” and Embrace the Joy of the Lord: Part One
How to Break the “Happiness Curse” and Embrace the Joy of the Lord: Part One
Unlike happiness, which is a feeling that comes and goes, joy comes from the Lord; it is not predicated on your life circumstances. Joy should be constant in your life because it comes from God.
Welcome to the 65th post of The Aim and Soar Life, a weekly newsletter about faith, personal growth, and lifestyle that provides actionable, relatable, and biblically rooted content to help you live abundantly and GROW YOU. GOD’S WAY.
Happy Sunday Fam!
The theme for June is Embracing Joy!😍
The Happiness Curse
“Lord, I’m not happy! I just want to be happy!”
If you have ever said these words, you are guilty of what I call the happiness curse. And before you roll your eyes at me, I’ve been guilty myself. That’s why I’m sharing this post with you.😉
So, what is this happiness curse? Well, since I made the term up, I will define it: “the expectation that life will be what you desire or dream, and when it isn’t you become disenchanted and discouraged.” That’s why I call it a “curse.”😂
Continual disappointment and discouragement can cause you to become a disgruntled servant of the kingdom, and I’m pretty sure that God doesn’t want any disgruntled workers on His team.
Instead, God expects us to embrace His joy.
Nehemiah 8:10b states, “For the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
What is the joy of the Lord?
Unlike happiness, which is a feeling that comes and goes, joy comes from the Lord; it is not predicated on your life circumstances. Joy should be constant in your life because it comes from God.
Joy is the gladness one gains by having a relationship with God and abiding in Him. Jesus says in John 15:11, “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”
Joy is also a characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Galatians 5:22, NKJV
Embracing the Joy of the Lord
God’s joy is available to you. Often, we don’t choose joy, we seek the feeling of happiness. The problem is happiness is fleeting. It can change from moment to moment. You can be in a period in your life where you are “feeling” happy and then suddenly, a break-up occurs, or you are confronted with a health challenge. And poof! Your happiness can quickly disappear into thin air.
Life can be like a teeter-totter (or the stock market), up one day and down the next.
But God doesn’t flip-flop; we do.
You may be left with a feeling of numbness and become disappointed with God for allowing adverse situations in your life. But when you embrace joy, you can power through these situations with confidence.
This is not toxic positivity (denying or invalidating your emotions and being told to focus on positivity or a positive mindset), which Christians are sometimes falsely accused of doing. I could spend way more time on this topic and will in another post at a later time.
For a Christian, embracing joy is anchoring yourself in the Lord so that you can make it through the unhappy days of your life. Because believe me, as you may already know, the unhappy days are par for the course on this side of heaven. There is no getting around them.
Practical Ways to Embrace the Joy of the Lord
Begin with gratitude!
Surrender to God’s plan.
Find joy in spiritual disciplines.
Serve others and spread joy.
Gratitude
As Christians, we must look at life through the lens of Christ. That’s why it is so important to read and study Scripture. We must internalize it. When we know what “Thus says the Lord” we can move with confidence.
This is where we forget the world and all the ways it attempts to program us.
Our response to life’s circumstances should always be, “Thank you, Lord.”
I’m not asking you to be thankful for your negative circumstance. Certainly, no one is thankful for a cancer diagnosis, divorce, or wayward teenager.
I’m saying you can be thankful to God because you can rest assured that He is with you and ultimately in control of your life.
It takes a lot of spiritual maturation and growth to get to this point.
This does not mean having your head in the sand, pretending everything is okay when it isn’t; this is you relying on your Father in heaven to do what He says He will do, which is to never leave nor forsake you.
You can thank Him because He loves you. He can be trusted with every part of your life.
I will not pretend that I like or understand every situation that has happened in my life. But when it seems that life is spiraling out of control and you can’t do a thing about it, I know that you can thank God for who He is.
You can be grateful for His protection and provision even if you don’t feel it or see it.
You can be grateful that He will see you through whatever storm you might face.
In the meantime, I pray that you have a wonderful week and embrace the joy that is available to you.
More to come next week!
Peace and Love
Until Next Time,
GROW YOU. GOD’S WAY.
Sherrhonda😍
P.S.
I’d LOVE for you to meet me on the web:
Embracing joy is like going to the gym and lifting weights, the more you discipline yourself to put in the work, the more muscle you build! Embrace it. Pray the scriptures that speak about the joy of the Lord. Trust God with everything. Pretty soon you will build that "joy" muscle!