Restoring Joy

Psalm 51:12

 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

As David is praying to the Lord, he utters, "restore unto me the joy of thy salvation," these are the words that I want to focus on today. 

If you are born again, you know that salvation strikes up a joy in you. A joy that is incomparable to any other experienced in your life on Earth. Knowing that you are at peace with God and have the Holy Spirit living within you can make you feel like you can conquer anything.

Maybe, if you're like David (and myself), your joy has dwindled since the beginning. Why is that? What happened to the fire? 

When meditating on this verse and applying it to my own life, I can think of a couple of things that could be hindering our joy.

One: Whose salvation?

While salvation may have been graciously bestowed upon us, we can gather from David's prayer here that it does not belong to us.  Thankfully, God holds ownership over our salvation. He offers it to us at no cost when we are undeserving, and He does not take it away when we feel that we have missed the mark.

Two: Are you allowing your joy to be stolen? 

This is the one that I feel is the greatest struggle for me. The Bible says that the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy, and I think we could say that Satan is less than elated when our joy comes from the gift of salvation. 

How does this happen?

If you are living in unrepentant sin of any kind, then Satan is taking hold of your joy. Covetousness. Yep, that little feeling that happens every time you watch that TikTok Influencer with the spotless home, loving husband and well-behaved children; or when you admire someone else's calling in a way that you become dissatisfied in your own. These are the little thoughts that our flesh lets creep into our minds and Satan hopes to use to steal our joy. 

Friend, it ultimately comes to this, the God of all creation has chosen you to bestow His gift of salvation upon. While that is more than enough, He also creates a purpose and a calling specifically tailored to who He made you to be. How could this not make us joyful? To know how much we are treasured by Him. 

If you are currently fighting the fight of taking back your joy, I am praying for you. If you have not begun that fight, but feel that these things apply to what you're currently going through, take the first step !