There are seasons when it seems as though everything that could go wrong has decided to happen at the same time. The bills keep coming. The answer you have been waiting for has not arrived. Someone disappoints you. A door closes. Your plans change without your permission, and suddenly the joy you had yesterday seems harder to find today.
That is exactly when you must remember: your circumstances do not have authority over your joy.
Jesus tells us in John 16:24 to ask in His name so that our joy may be full. Prayer is more than presenting God with a list of requests. Prayer reconnects our hearts with the One who sees what we cannot see, knows what we do not know, and has power over situations we cannot control.
The enemy would love for disappointment to become discouragement, discouragement to become doubt, and doubt to become defeat. If he cannot destroy your faith, he will often try to distract you from it. One of his most effective strategies is convincing you to focus so intensely on what is wrong that you forget everything God has already made right.
Do not surrender your joy because something has not worked out yet.
Your unanswered prayer is not proof that God is absent.
Your delay is not proof that God has forgotten you.
Your difficult season is not proof that your story ends here.
Sometimes prayer changes the situation. Sometimes prayer changes the person praying while God prepares the situation. Sometimes God opens the door. Sometimes He closes the wrong door. Sometimes He removes the obstacle, and sometimes He strengthens you until you can walk through it.
But prayer always gives us somewhere to take what is too heavy to carry alone.
Protect your joy intentionally. Start your morning talking to God before talking to the world. Before scrolling through social media, pray. Before responding in anger, pray. Before allowing fear to write tomorrow’s story, pray. Before deciding that nothing is going to change, pray again.
You may not be able to control what arrives at your doorstep today, but you can decide what gets permission to live inside your heart.
The devil does not deserve your joy.
The problem does not deserve your joy.
The disappointment does not deserve your joy.
Give the burden to God—and keep your joy.
