Losing Joy Can Be Helpful If You Know Why You Lost It
I appreciate technology and all the ways it’s made life easier. In particular I like looking up stuff. One of the things I don’t recommend looking up is medical advice. It seems like every time I follow all the possibilities it tells me I have a fatal disease! Have you ever done that? If you haven’t, try it you’ll see!
You may be thinking the problem isn’t the web-site, it’s my diagnosis. That may be true. Being able to diagnose any problem properly is the first step in solving it. This is true physically and it’s also true spiritually. If we don’t know what’s wrong how can we attempt to fix it?
In the last couple posts I’ve talked about losing joy. Both sin and trials are issues that can cause us to lose our joy. In this post I want to talk about losing joy as a possible symptom we are under spiritual attack.
Losing Joy By Changing Our Focus
It makes sense that our spiritual enemies can affect our joy. Joy is a sense of deep inner rejoicing. The desires of our enemies are all negative. They turn our hearts away from the peace and satisfaction of God and dangle things in front of us that seem desirable but are joy killers. The flesh produces things like anger and hostility Galatians 5:19-21. The world fills us with desires for things we don’t have 1 John 2:15-17. Satan attacks us with lies and deceit 2 Corinthians 11:3.
Losing Joy As A Warning Sign
The next time you lose your joy, stop and do a diagnosis. Follow these steps.
- Examine your heart to determine if you’ve sinned. If you have, that’s the reason. Confess your sin, turn from it and walk with God. If not go to step 2.
- Consider your circumstances. Are you in the midst of a trial, letting your circumstances steal your joy? Instead of losing joy we need to be choosing joy. If not go to step 3.
- Consider your heart. Are you under an attack from one of our three spiritual enemies? The attack will usually start with a bad mood or desire for the wrong thing. That mood or evil attacking desire isn’t yet sin but is getting you close. If you recognize losing joy is an attack defend yourself.
– for the flesh, consider yourself dead to it and alive to God for victory Romans 6:11.
– for the world, stop loving it and love God 1 John 2:15.
– for a satanic attack, resist by putting on the armor of God Ephesians 6:10-17.
Losing joy isn’t fatal. It’s no fun and hopefully will motivate you to get your joy back. It’s what the Father wants for you! Romans 15:13
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