Joy is a weapon of warfare!

I spent many years being sad. I was sad even when I was happy. Sadness had become a way of life for me. I just kept a part of my heart where I thought no one could see how sad I was inside. My circumstances would allow me to experience happiness but that is not the same as being joyful. No matter what I could not seem to overcome the deep sadness that had invaded my soul. Until one day I heard a preacher say that my sorrow had an expiration date. What? Says who? And then he quoted a Scripture that says in Psalms 30:5, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."When the morning comes, the season for sorrow is over. For the first time I had hope. God has declared that there was an end point for the sorrow. That was a Scripture I could stand on.
When I realized that it could end, I began to study about sadness and it's counterpart: JOY. Because you can be happy which is related to your circumstances or you can have JOY which is related to your spirit.  The Scripture in  Proverbs 17:22, states that " a broken spirit drieth the bones." but Nehemiah 8:10, says, "the joy of the LORD is your strength." Now your bones are foundational to what helps you stand up. If you are going to be victorious in battle you have to be able to stand up and go forward. But my sorrow was keeping my spiritual bones dry and brittle. And so I had no strength. Recently I read somewhere that fatigue was the cause of one out of three doctor's appointments in this country. People are tired because they have sorrow/sadness or dare I say it depression. BUT the word says the JOY of the LORD is my strength. Depression the enemy of my spirit had squelched my joy. Which is NOT controlled by what is happening around you but by your spirit. The Word says that the fruit of the Spirit is love then JOY. It does not say that you will have JOY when your circumstances change for the better, it says you will have JOY because God's Holy Spirit will create the fruit in you because of HIS presence. So do you chose to stand in sorrow or do you chose to pick up the weapon of our warfare, the fruit of the Spirit and have JOY. Personally, I stepped out of darkness and into HIS marvelous light. And in the natural NOTHING has changed. But in the spirit I changed because I chose JOY. I am free from sorrow and bondage and JOY has become my weapon of choice to victory. How does that work? When I find myself slipping into sorrow, I remind myself that to defeat the plan of the enemy that is to wreak havoc and chaos in my life, I need my strength which comes from the Lord and is found in the fruit of His Presence known as joy. The weapons of our warfare are spiritual and JOY is one that you need to use in this fight.
This is Pastor Susan Joyfully Living the Everyday Prophetic Life.