Notes from this week's podcast: Five Ways to Restore Your Joy

Have you ever lost your joy? You've tried everything but you can't seem to do it. What do we do? How can we restore the joy of our salvation? 

Losing your joy is not losing your salvation, but it's losing the experience of it. The difference between being saved and being joyful in your salvation is immense. 

David experienced this and yet he gives us the footprints to walk with the joy of our salvation. He didn't ask God to save him again. 

We focus on the restoration. 

Joy is a delight that is deep down within you. It comes out of your spirit man. You're in a state of triumph, success -- not that everything around you is successful. But you possess that pleasure within you, that no matter your circumstances, there's a delight deep down within you. Our joy, true joy, is a testimony to other people around us, but it must be that authentic joy. 

Five Ways for God to Restore that Joy

1) Be honest with yourself and confess you've lost your joy. Stop trying to cover it up, justify why you feel the way you do. Stop being stubborn, demanding your way. 

David doesn't try to blame other people or his circumstances. He looks directly at himself. 

"Against You, You only, have I sinned." 

He knew that what he had done had broken God's heart and he took ownership of it. 

The joy cannot return when we hide in sin. Speak to God about it. Talk to another trusted friend. 

Confession is agreeing with God, where you have fallen short of God's glory. 

2) Rehearse the gospel, not the circumstance. The gospel is the truth, what brings you back and focused on Jesus and what He did. Because when you are focused on Jesus and you're rehearsing the gospel, what happened through the Gospel itself, you can't think about the circumstances at the same time. Your joy is not lost because your situation is hard. We all have hard situations. You've lost your joy because you've forgotten what God has done for you. How quick and easy we forget. 

Lord, you clean me like you clean the lepers. I feel that separated. 

Speak to yourself the gospel: "God, I am forgiven. I am adopted. I am a child of God." 

God, I trust You. I believe You, God. I believe what You did. I believe in the cross. I believe in the blood of Jesus Christ. I believe I am forgiven. I know I am a child of God. I know I am loved by You. And I am sealed with the Holy Spirit. 

We have to be reminded of what Christ did and what we believe. And get a good picture of the cross. When you say it, you'll come back to the joy of your salvation. 

3) You've got to return to the means of grace. Grace is being poured out right now. You need to receive it. When your joy has been lost, by the power of the Holy Spirit, grace has been sent and knocking at your door that you would receive it, that you would believe the truth. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would return by the means of that grace -- you would come back to the heart of God. 

Pick up the things that are God -- pick up the Word of God, read the Word, read it out loud, slowly. Then you begin to pray those words back to God. 

[We must go to church and get around other believers.] 

These are the disciplines that are from our joy springs. The means of grace, that's your way back to God, that's what He uses to pour grace on your life, to restore the joy of your salvation. When we block that grace, from receiving that grace that God is sending, we block the restoration of our joy. Feelings will follow out of obedience. 

4) Give thanksgiving in the dark. Thank yourself out of the dark. This is one of the most powerful weapons that you have. When you don't have joy, start to thank God anyway.

Thank God that He has saved you. Thank God that He has provided Heaven for you and that Heaven is real. Thank God that your sins are forgiven. Thank God for the roof over your head, for your home, a bed, the food on your table. Be thankful for what you have. 

Thanksgiving is not a feeling. It's a command.

The darkness begins to be pushed back because your focus has changed. Your focus is back on God. 

5) Seek God, not the feeling of joy. Joy is not your goal, target. When you make God your target, joy often shows up as a little gift. You're seeking His presence. 

The goal is to get back in God's presence and then joy follows, joy returns. Go spend some time with God. I picture God with me. He brings the Word of God to my remembrance and I meditate on that Word. 

Five Things Not To Do because your flesh can counterfeit joy and that will take you deeper in a hole. 

1) Do not try to entertain yourself back to joy. (Shopping, scrolling, binge-watching shows, eating)

We fill our time with noise when we need to fill it with God's presence. 

2) Don't isolate yourself. The body of Christ exists for these moments, times. Your brothers and sisters in Christ want to pray for you, with you. They want to speak truth to you, and sit with you in your low moments. 

3) Don't try to fix yourself through will power. This is a subtle deception to do more out of the flesh. The motive behind it is not right. If you're doing these things to earn your way back to joy, that's legalism. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. You can't manufacture it. You can position yourself to receive it. 

4) Do not downplay or deny your condition. Admit that you've lost your joy. 

5) Do not look for joy in new experiences or new places. The motivation is not right. When you've lost your joy, your flesh will tell you what you need a change. (New church, new job, new friend, new relationship, new hobby) Many times, you'll carry your problems wherever you go. Changing your external circumstances, while you ignore internally what is going on with the condition of your heart, it's like moving the furniture around in a house that's burning. It's not going to solve the problem. There is a burning within you, not outside you. You've got to deal with your heart. 

David knows his joy comes from the Lord -- from His salvation, from His fellowship with God; that joy of being saved by grace, of being forgiven; that God loves you with an everlasting love. 

It must be restored God's way, not our way. Come back to the cross with Jesus and that's where joy lives. 

Scripture for further study: Psalm 51 (vv.1-4, 7, 3, 12), Psalm 16:11, Hebrews 10:25