When Your Circumstances Aren't Joyful

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have are Monthly Contributor Beka. She is sharing her heart on this month's theme, Joy. You can find out more about Beka on the "About" page. 

I don't know about you, but I definitely struggle with keeping my emotions in check and my thoughts focused on Christ. I'm pregnant, and my hormones have been all over the place! Although that is no excuse, it does make the battle a little harder to fight when I'm already prone to fall in this area.

Emotions are a tricky thing when it comes to us as women. It is so easy to be controlled by them and to lean toward thinking thoughts of loneliness, misery, and depression when there are actually so many reasons to be joyful! 

But what do you do when you really can't find reasons to be joyful? When everything seems to be falling apart in your life?

Sometimes our circumstances are less than ideal. When a friend passes away, when the bank account is empty, when you and your husband seem to argue constantly yet never resolve anything, when you face miscarriage, abandonment, or poverty...what is there to be joyful in that?

It's tempting to be miserable and faithless, to throw your hands in the air and admit defeat that you'll never find joy again.

But this is where Christ's mighty strength and passionate love come in – because sister, we will never be joyful in and of ourselves. When we are faithless, He is faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). When we are weak, He is strong (2 Cor. 12:9). 

We sometimes have to admit that life is tough sometimes. You are not somehow less of a Christian because you're struggling.

But remember, we are not struggling toward joy; to somehow recover it or “find” it again. We are struggling in His joy. Christ IS joy, and if you are in Him, you are covered, protected, and strengthened. 

The joy is already yours in Christ, dear friend. Even when situations aren't the happiest, remember that you have a Savior who IS joy and who came to give us life abundantly.