“…Rejoice in the Lord always;”
(Phil 4:4)

He has placed His joy is in our hearts; He expects us to see His hand at work—always! Good or bad; when things go the way we like and understand; and when they don’t!

“Why do Christians lose their joy?” Here are the next few reasons:

Focusing on Circumstances (and not God)

Paul taught the Philippians by example and by word. Remember the first time he went to Philippi? (see Acts 16) His circumstances did not go as planned. He was beaten and thrown in jail. Yet, around midnight, he was able to push through his circumstances and pray and sing songs of worship.

Later when he wrote to the Philippians about overcoming bad circumstances—they believed him! They had seen him live this way from the start.

We first lose our perspective—then we lose our joy! If we will set our minds on things above—and keep seeking Christ and His Kingdom—we can have joy in the midst of our bad circumstances.

No Prayer/Worship…No Joy

That brings us to the next reason. Prayer and worship are the fuel of joy. If we refuse to pray and worship—it is like cutting oxygen off from a fire. It can not burn. We can tell God anything in prayer; we can even start by saying we don’t like our circumstances! But we must talk to Him. If we are silent, if we do not cry out to Him, there is no fuel to the joy-fire in our hearts.

Worship—simply defined it is an attitude of the heart expressed through an activity of our life. In worship, we set our hearts on His character, then express through some activity (singing, praying, giving, obedience, etc.) that we are submitting to Him and longing for His life to be ours. Worship fuels the joy-fire in our hearts.

Here’s one more reason we lose out joy:

Ingratitude/Forgetfulness

As a part of worship, we take on an attitude of gratefulness for all He has given us. The Psalmist said,

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
(Psalm 103:1-2)

When we think we caused it…or we deserve it…we are moving down the self-centered path that will cut off our joy. Gratefulness and remembering “His benefits” will become fuel to the fire of joy in our heart.