How to Discover Sustaining Joy – Part 1

By Greg Sanders

Joy comes from knowing your source.

Happiness comes and goes, but true joy will sustain you through any circumstance.

John 3:26 So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” 27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. 28 You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ 29 It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. 30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

Most people are not excited when their following or success is diminishing. John was losing influence and was happy about it. Why? His joy was not derived from the crowd of people following him, but rather it came directly from the One he followed. His sense of joy came from Jesus, not just his current circumstance.

You can have sustaining joy that is greater than what you are going through.

 Joy comes from knowing your source. Look where John said his strength came from in verse 27. John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. John was saying, “Everything I am and everything I have is all from Heaven. Everything I am and everything I will be is only by the grace of God.” John knew that Jesus was his source. 
His search was over. He knew that he had found the source of his life.

You do not receive joy by trying to fill yourself; you find joy by allowing Him to fill you. When you depend on Him to be your joy, He steps in and fills you and meets your needs in a way that is beyond what you could imagine. Depend on Him to be your source.

Do you know why it is often hard to trust God as your source? It’s because you have to stop trying to be your own source. Sustaining joy comes from knowing that the pressure of life is not all on you. You know that you can trust Jesus with all of your life. Joy comes when you realize that He takes responsibility for those who entrust their lives to Him. 


Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

If you are suffering from a joy deficit today, allow Jesus to fill you. He gives sustaining joy that can carry you through every season of life.

Blessings,

Greg