Your complaints are giving the devil praise, but joy can be your shield.

What does it truly mean when we sing "the joy of the Lord is my strength"? In this deeply personal reflection, I explore the stark contradiction between proclaiming joy as our spiritual foundation while spending our workdays entrenched in complaints, gossip, and negativity.

Drawing from childhood memories of singing this powerful declaration with my mother, I challenge listeners to examine whether their daily conduct actually reflects this statement of faith. How can we claim divine joy while simultaneously engaging in behavior that, as I've come to understand, actually gives praise to the adversary? Each complaint, each moment of workplace gossip, represents a spiritual choice about who or what we're truly serving.

I vulnerably share my own journey of transformation, including moments when coworkers have witnessed me crying on the job. These weren't tears of defeat, but rather a spiritual discipline—a desperate prayer for God to shield me from returning ugliness with ugliness. Having once been someone I now describe as "not nice at all," I've discovered the life-changing power of prayer before work, of inviting divine protection over my words and reactions when faced with difficult people and situations. This spiritual preparation has become as essential to my day as coffee is to others.

Whether you're struggling with a toxic workplace, difficult colleagues, or your own reactions to daily challenges, this episode offers both gentle conviction and practical guidance. Before complaining about your circumstances, perhaps consider: Have you truly surrendered your day to the One whose joy promises to be your strength? Connect with me at swarnregina@gmail.com  to share your thoughts or experiences with finding joy amid workplace challenges.

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Chapters

• 1:48 Introduction and Greetings
• 2:19 The Joy of the Lord Theme
• 3:27 Workplace Complaining Problem
• 5:10 Prayer Before Work
• 7:37 Personal Growth Journey
• 10:08 Final Thoughts and Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:55

Hi there, I'm Regina Soren. Welcome back to another episode of Regina Soren Audio Series Presents. I'd like to go ahead right off the start, give you a place that you can contact me. Contact me at sorenregina at gmailcom. Thank you for those who support this podcast monthly. Thank you if you share this podcast and thank you to all those wonderful listeners.

Speaker 1: 1:26

I want to jump right into a topic that has been really pressing on my mind lately and it's called the joy of the Lord. You know, a lot of people say the joy of the Lord is my strength. I hear that all the time. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I remember as a kid I used to sing it all the time the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Do you guys remember that? I used to love that song? My mom was a singer, as you guys know, but I used to love that song and it's one of the songs that she taught us growing up the joy of the lord. I want to kind of fast forward to today. Maybe you've heard this, maybe you haven't on your job and I don't care what job it is or any in any situation.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Are you around people that complain a lot? I'm talking about a whole lot. Well, sometimes people say they are people of faith and that they love the Lord and that the joy of the Lord is their strength. Well, if the joy of the Lord is your strength, why are you always giving the devil praises by complaining? You know, sometimes at work people complain from the time they get there to the time that they leave A lady the other day. I promise you this lady she is doing so much and she gets so tired doing so much, but at the same time, you're complaining to me and other people. But this is something that you chose to do. This is something that you want to do, but the thing that you don't need to do is to go around complaining. A lot of the times, people love to spread out, you know, god this and god that, and a lot of times it's people of faith who sometimes these podcasts are directed to.

Speaker 1: 3:45

When you say the joy of the Lord is your strength, that means a lot. That means you give all of your troubles and all of your day's work and all of whatever's going on in your job, in your life, you give that over to the Lord. But how can you give that over to the Lord when, every time you turn around, you're complaining about this, you're complaining about that, you're complaining about this, you're talking about your co-worker, you're talking about the boss, you're talking about this one, that one, this one, that one, how? And then you say the joy of the Lord is your strength. Are you even aware that when you complain, that you give the devil praises? I've made a podcast about that. Before it's called who is your God. Go look under my content and see that podcast is uh, last year, year before that it's called who is your god. I was trying to explain in that podcast that if you're complaining constantly, all the time, then the devil is your God, because that's who you're giving praises to.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Complaining means you're having doubts. So the next time you say that the joy of the Lord is your strength, think about what you're saying. That's why I tell people before you go to work, before you start your job, if you work at home, whatever you do, say a word of prayer before you do it. Ask God to guide you through the day, ask God to guide you through the night. Ask God to guide you and keep you and shield you and protect you and protect your thoughts and protect you from complaining, because it's so easy when people do little things to you or make you mad. That's why a lot of times if I'm on on the job and if I shed a tear, trust me, it's not because you are big, bad bully over me. It's nothing like that.

Speaker 1: 5:48

And people have seen me shed tears before on the job and, as I said in one of my podcasts, that is because I'm praying that God do not let me overact, curse somebody out, say something stupid, just because someone else is acting stupid. God don't let me act like that. And so if you ever see me cry because one lady was so mean one night, she was so mean and a lot of people would say, well, I would have cursed her out, I would have did this I turned around and I just had my head bowed my head and I was crying, asking God, don't let me curse this person out, because whenever you see that from me, that's God trying to shield me. I'm asking God to shield my thoughts, to shield my temper Because, as you guys know, you come up on me 10 years ago, oh God, 15 years ago, I was horrible.

Speaker 1: 6:49

I don't like the person I used to be. That person I used to be was not nice, not nice at all. I mean just not nice. But I thank God for changing me, bringing a change in my life. And so, as I said, if you ever see me cry on a job or have a tear on the job, that's because I don't want to curse somebody out. I don't want that old man to come up in me Like Toby. He said don't let the old man in, I want to live with some more. I mean, I know he's talking about something else, but I love that song, oh my God. But yeah, you can't let that old man in you rise up again, because he will.

Speaker 1: 7:32

So just think about it the next time you see the joy of the Lord is your strength. Think about that and pray before you go to work. People get up and do everything else they exercise, they get their cup of coffee, they meditate. Ask God to shield you and guide you and protect your mouth over your day from talking stupid, from reacting to something that somebody said to you. Because, guys, guys, I fight so many times spiritually, because I I'm aware that this is a warfare in high places spiritually. I'm aware of that, so I have to pray accordingly. So I ask god, please help me, protect me, not to act crazy and retaliate against these people who are being so mean to me.

Speaker 1: 8:23

And that includes talking about people too. Yeah, because every word you say, every idle word you say, one day it's going to come up in judgment. Guys and those who are Christians I mean real Christians, you know what I'm talking about but those who don't. Then, as I said, why are you listening to this podcast? If you don't believe in the Lord Jesus, then goodbye.

Speaker 1: 8:48

I believe I was taught. My mom taught me about the Lord and brought up on the Lord Jesus. I believe in the Lord, yes, I do. It's been too good to me not to believe in him and to turn now, because everybody has their own little thoughts and minds of who's what and who's where, whatever. But anyways, the next time you see the joy of the Lord is your strength. Make sure you've prayed before you left that house going to work. Make sure you have prayed before you start your job in the morning time. If you work at home, whatever kind of work you do, it don't hurt to say a word of prayer before you get started. I'm Regina Swarn. Thank you so much for joining me. For Regina Swarn Audio Series Presents. You can contact me at swarnregina at gmailcom.