What has happened to all your joy?

Galatians 4:15, MIN (1978)

What has happened to all your joy? That was how the old NIV phrased it. In the New King James version, the question was "What then was the blessing you enjoyed?" Paul was writing to the churches in the Galatian region, and he noted that they seemed to have lost the joy that they once had enjoyed. Many had turned back to the world, and such a turning robbed them of the blessings that they had so enjoyed when they had been living as Christians. Though these Christians had initially turned from their lives of idolatry and had experienced great joy as a result, once they went back to their old ways, their joy slowly evaporated.

I believe this happens to all of us, from time to time. It's not so much that we are returning to our wicked lives in a headlong plunge, but we do get distracted. Life continues to demand our attention. We have jobs to go to, families to raise, and sometimes even unreasonable and ill-tempered people to deal with. In other words, we get caught up again in that old rat race that we had been running before we became Christians, and such pursuits always have a way of taking away our joy.

It is important for us to understand what joy is before we can fully understand how we can lose it in the first place. Joy is partly an emotion, but it is much more than that - it is a state of being. It comes as a direct result of God's blessings that he gives to those who are living for Him and Christ. In other words, it is a spiritual blessing, and it is therefore entirely unavailable to those who are not in a covenant relationship with Him. This "covenant" relationship is something we are all born with. Jesus said that unless we change and become like little children that we cannot enter the kingdom of God. Peter said to those who were no longer children that once they had obeyed the Gospel that God would add them to the number of those who were saved - the church (Acts chapter 2). 

So, when we are little kids, we are typically filled with joy. Joy goes beyond mere contentment and simple happiness in that it is a direct result of being blessed. A dog can be content with a full stomach, and an addict can experience a brief euphoria from his drugs, but neither is the result of God's blessings that are given as a reward for a faithful life. Joy is the knowledge that we are saved (even though we do not deserve it) and it is an inward feeling that goes beyond the temporary happy times that anyone can experience from worldly pleasures. It does involve a measure of happiness and contentment, but it is so much fuller than that because it comes from the never ending well of the Spirit of God.   

I know that I may seem to be beating this definition to death, but the reason I go into such depth on this is because it helps us to understand a fact that sometimes bewilders us when we lose it. When Paul asked the Galatians where all their joy had gone, he was in part pointing out that they had lost this blessed stated because they had drifted from Christ. And when we lose Christ as our focus in life, we lose our joy as well. 

In other words, the loss of joy is a symptom that is there to alert us that something is wrong. The pain we experience when we are injured is an important part of our physiology. The pain we focus on is not the root of the problem - it is the broken bone or burned hand that is the problem. The pain just alerts us to the problem. In a similar way, the loss of joy from our lives is not the true problem, though we feel it to our very core when we lose it. It is this loss of joy that tells the budding adult that he is no longer a child and that there is now a penalty imparted upon him for the sin in his life. In a like manner, it is the loss of joy that tells a Christian that he has gotten off the tracks somewhere. Both have lost their covenant position before God because of the unrepented sin in their lives and the result is a loss of the joy that they experienced when they remained in that covenant.

So, if you have lost your joy, maybe it is a symptom of a deeper problem that needs to be addressed. It is true that there will be times of unhappiness and discontent in life, but these should be temporary. And regardless of the trials that we all experience in life, these trials cannot in and of themselves steal our joy. That is something that can only happen when we lose sight of Jesus and our devotion to Him. So, if you really have lost your joy, then it is time to take a fresh look at your life and see why. Having discovered that reason, we can then take the necessary steps that will lead us back to God and Christ. 

The Galatians were doomed to a life devoid of joy for as long as they placed things of the world above their devotion to Christ, and it will be the same for us in our lives. But, once we have returned God to His rightful position as King of our lives, and once we are walking again in the light of Christ, we will then rediscover that wonderful blessing of joy that God showers upon all of His faithful children. Do you have joy? Then keep on being faithful and be thankful! But, if the joy is missing from your life, maybe it's time to rededicate your life to Christ. It's something we all need to consider from time to time, don't you think?