Episode 6 - How to Get Your Joy Back (Psalm 16:11)

Have you ever looked around and realized you're still functioning, still showing up, and still doing what needs to be done—but on the inside, you've lost your joy?

In this episode, Val explores the difference between temporary happiness and the lasting joy that comes from God. Through Psalm 16:11 and Galatians 5:22-23, she shares how true joy is not based on circumstances but is produced through a consistent relationship with God.

If you've been feeling weary, discouraged, or emotionally drained, this message will remind you where joy is found and how God's presence can restore what life's pressures have tried to steal.

Because when you remain connected to Him, joy becomes more than a feeling—it becomes evidence of His presence in your life.

Scriptures Referenced:
Psalm 16:11
Galatians 5:22-23

Thank you for listening to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God.

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Until next time,

Hear God's Voice.
Find Healing.
Build Intimacy and Trust.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, and welcome to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God. Here we're going to actually hear God's voice, find healing, but ultimately build intimacy and trust. In today's episode, we are talking about let's get back our joy. Won't you listen? So let me ask you a question. When we talk about joy, have you ever looked around and realized that you may still be functioning, you may still be working, you're still showing up when you need to show up, but on the inside, you're struggling. The inside, you don't have a sense of excitement and joy and passion. You're just doing what is needed to get you through. Well, I'm hoping I can help you today because many, many of us walk around, we function, we look at someone else and they're smiling and they're just enjoying life, but with you internally, you're you're you're barely getting through. You lost your joy. You lost your peace. Do you know when you don't have joy on the inside, when the storm comes your way, you find it hard to even have peace on the inside and even on the outside. When you look and say, why can I smile just to pretend, say, hey, but on the inside, you're really, really battling. Well, what I want to talk about is when you hear that verse, that God's joy brings us strength and it helps to build us up. From that, we always look at to see what we can do on the inside. Amen. Amen. So, because of that, what I want to challenge you today is let's just take a few minutes and try to really dive into how do we receive God's joy? And not only just get joys where we can kind of make it through the day, but we want to be able to get the fullness of his joy to be able to be complete. So when we look up what is joy and what does it mean? Joy is from the natural standpoint, it's a feeling that we have on the inside. It brings us delight, happiness, and it's usually caused by something that happens that's good, right? When you see something that makes you smile, it brings that emotion, that feeling of happiness on the inside. I got a new job, so I got joy. I got an answer prayer today, so I got joy. But those kinds of joys, those feelings, those emotions, they only rise for a certain moment and they fall quickly after. It depends on what's going on in that particular circumstance that brings on joy. But today I want to talk to you about receiving God's joy and receiving the fullness that comes in with it. Amen. Amen. And I am getting a call from my son, so I want to just pause for two seconds. Hello, Yesla. Okay. Um, we'll take a look at it when I get up there. All right, I'll take a look at it when we get there. I'll get there in a few. We'll talk about it. Take a look and see what you like. Okay, bye. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry. That was my son. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, we're having a real family moment today. So sorry about that. So going back, going back. So we are talking about how is it when we have natural joy that comes in when it's just a temporary thing, it's a circumstance that causes us to have a good moment to feel good on the inside. But if you don't have the fullness of joy on the outs and the inside of you, that means it only lasts for a moment. But what I want to talk to you today about receiving joy from God. What does that mean when I look at the definition of it? It's a deep inner gladness of confidence and delight that comes from knowing God, trusting God, but it is ultimately found in his presence. When we are in the presence of God, God allows us to receive the fullness of his joy. Now, when I talk about fullness, first I get it from scripture, Psalm 16 and 11. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So when we look at the word fullness, it doesn't mean joy sometimes. It doesn't mean joy that comes because you got something that a circumstance that occurred that made you happy in the moment. No, we're talking about fullness, that no matter what comes and what goes, that the joy is there to stay. That joy is complete, that it overflows, but ultimately is not dependent on a circumstance that comes about. And how do we get that? By getting in his presence. Have you ever had a time when you prayed? That when you went into prayer, you were feeling discouraged, you were feeling distraught. I've had times when I've gone into prayer where I couldn't even speak because of the burdens I was carrying in that moment. But I went into prayer. And when I prayed, when the presence of God showed itself, that lift that was holding that weight that was holding me down was lifted. And in exchange of him taking that away, he allowed me to receive the fullness of his joy. And that when I can walk out of that prayer closet and face that situation with a new light, with a new mindset, with the ability to be able to smile in the midst of chaos. What a lot of people don't realize is that no matter what you go through, we all go through. That's why being in prayer, being in his presence, reading his word are so critical because we can walk away and receive a fullness within us. I have a good, good friend that when we get into prayer time and the presence of the Lord comes on, and she is just bubbling with joy. I mean, she breaks out into laughter. Do you know the Bible says, and even like doctors in medical field says, that laughter is good medicine because it does something in you through you that allows your mind to shift to be able to start focusing on good things, amen. Amen. When we look at a person and they're struggling, that doesn't take away from who you is, and that doesn't even take away from who is within you. Believers don't have to struggle to create joy. Many of us try to make ourselves happy. We know I shouldn't be going through this, I shouldn't be sad, I shouldn't be happy. I'm just gonna make myself happy, and sometimes you really try to do that, and it may last for just a moment. But when you get with God and you get in the presence of God and allow Him to fill you up with His joy, that is what that verse really means when it says you can get strength. Your His joy is your strength that can carry you through, and it only does through the connection to Jesus because His joy comes natural to us. When we go in there, it begins to grow inside of us. Joy comes from His presence, and it comes when you spend time with Him. We all know from Galatians 5 and 22, when it talks about the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, it's joy, it's peace, it's forbearance, it's kindness, it's goodness, it's faithfulness, it's gentleness, self-control. And that verse ends saying, against such things there is no law. And if you really dig into that verse, it says it is the fruit, it is the fruit that produces not just one of those things, it produces all of those things, it produces love within you, it produces joy, it produces peace, and so on and so on. So, one thing I want you to really notice that when Apostle Paul wrote that scripture and he was talking about the fruit of the Spirit, he did not just call it out as a joy, a gift from God. He called it out this is the fruit. Joy is produced when you remain connected to God. You can't tap in and tap out, but it's when you have an intimate, lasting connection with Him, it produces joy. And how do we know that? It's because the fruit becomes evidence, you will be able to experience the joy within you. When you talk about fruit itself, we know when you think of fruit, and how does fruit even get produced? It's connected to the tree. The tree is connected to the roots, and that is what brings about the fullness of the fruit. Well, we as believers of Christ, we are connected to God, and He produces fruit within us. Amen. And out of that fruit from the Spirit of God is love, joy, peace, kindness. But what's key in that is that you have to stay connected. If you see apples on an apple tree, you know it's connected to that tree. If you see an orange, you know the orange is connected to an orange tree. So when I see joy and when I receive joy, or when others see genuine joy within me, they can look and say, Oh my gosh, she has been spending time with the Holy Spirit. How else can she smile and laugh? And we all know what they're going through. We all know that circumstance. Oh my gosh, that person must really be spending time with the Holy Spirit. So if you're not seeing joy or you're not feeling joy, or you're not experiencing joy, then I gotta stop and ask, what fruit are you producing right now? Because fruit does reveal what you're feeding yourself on the inside. Are you feeding yourself fear? Bad news that comes. Are you really constantly digging into that? Are you going through anxiety right now? My biggest one is are you on social media all the time? Social media is good. I mean, look, we're on social media now, but it also, if you keep going through and you're watching the reels and you're watching the chaos, and you're watching the joy, and that stuff is feeding into your spirit, that does have a factor of taking away your joy. Amen. Amen. But I challenge you today to get your rejoy back, to have the joy to its fullness, where it doesn't care what circumstance comes your way, good or bad. I challenge you today, spend time with God on a regular basis, not just on church on Sundays, watching a motivational speech here and there. No, no, no. Spend quality time with God, and we do that through prayer, we do that through reading the word, we do that through taking time to just worship, but you have to be consistent with it, no matter what you're going through. And remember, I said I even had times when I couldn't do it because mentally I just was tapped out. But I went into that presence anyway, I went into that prayer closet, I went to a space where me and God meet on a regular basis every day, that He can expect me to show up because I do it every day, and I'm reminded of when Abraham and Jesus, I mean and God, and God was waiting on Abraham to come because he was really contemplating in Genesis about Sodom and Gomorrah, and God knew that what he wanted to do with Sodom and Gomorrah, but he said, Oh my goodness, here come Abraham, and we're gonna end up talking, and I'm gonna tell him about what I'm doing, and I know who Abraham is, so he's gonna intercede for the city. One key thing I love about that particular part of the scripture is one. And he knew that Abraham was on his way, he was consistent, he shows up every day at five o'clock. God is saying, Let me get here because I know he's coming. Two, God wanted to share with Abraham what was on his mind, what was on his heart, because he was ready to do put some judgment in on Simon and Gomorrah, but he knew he was going to end up talking about it with Abraham. Now, how did God know that? He knew that because when Abraham, and this is a vow mental interpretation, I keep telling you, so don't beat me up. But what I believe is that when Abraham goes to talk to God, he's not only saying, God, this is what I need, this is what I got going on. He takes the time to say, What's on your heart, God? What's on your mind? What is your will for today? And because God knew they had that type of conversation when they came together, he already knew, oh my goodness, I'm gonna end up talking about this to Abraham. So I say that to say is that when you are increasing your time with God, don't let it be a one-way conversation. See, God already knows what you're going through, he sees and he knows all. That's why he says, seek ye the kingdom first in all of its righteousness. Go in there to find out what is God talking about today? What's on his heart? What is his will for the earth today? That he may want to partner with you on, or you never know. Revelation comes out so powerful in those moments. But the other thing that you're going to notice is that when you are in a consistent prayer time, consistent reading word time with God, you're going to notice how your joy, your joy grows. You're going to notice how peace grows. You're going to notice that you got faith that grows as well. And most important, you're going to see your hope. Hope is going to start to grow within you. So when I try to connect Psalm 16 and 11, which tells us, and let me go back to it. Psalm 16 and 11 says, You will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. When I try to connect that, when, like I said, the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 5, 22 and 23, but the fruit of the Spirit is joy, love, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. What is God trying to tell us in this moment today? Psalms 16 and 11 tells us that his presence, being with him, is what produces joy. And Galatians 5 and 22 says the evidence of that presence in your life will give you the joy. It will show not in just your own self, but others that comes around will see it too. When God first gave me this, he said, when you have the fullness of joy, do you know it cancel curses that's over your life? Do you know his joy saves and it delivers? But what's really important is that when we have the fullness of his joy, it really is the strength that you need to make it through whatever you're going through. Well, I am so glad that you took the time to watch today. And I am so grateful that you allowed me to have some family time with part two of this, even with my son calling in on the middle of it. But I hope you're having an amazing Saturday. I hope this blessed you. I hope that if you're really seeking out joy, not just joy that comes from watching a happy movie, from laughing with friends for a few minutes. All of that is good and all of it is needed. But we don't want the joy to be based off of a circumstance that goes through. We want the joy that comes from God's presence and receiving the fullness of it, which means it's going to take time to grow to reach a state where no matter what goes on, you can smile and you can be sincere with it. Amen. So I'll if you know someone that needs this, share it with them. Let's touch someone today, amen. And I love you, and I'll see you next time. Bye bye.