Discover 3 Powerful Ways to Beat the Blues and Find Joy

Does your joy-o-meter seem to plummet to an all new low with the latest headline, heartache, or health concern? Do you find since the paycheck is stretched, so is your peace? Are you having wrestling with how to beat the blues and find joy again? With all the self-help guru’s out there it can be difficult to discover practical and powerful ways to beat the blues and find joy.

Whether your world is completely turned upside down or you are simply annoyed with the low moments of your life, joy can still be a part of every moment of your day. The rut of joyless living is real, and yet our God speaks a better word. In His word, He has a solution for every problem we face, if we pause and ask for His perspective. Let’s open God’s word and discover three powerful ways to beat the blues and find joy in every situation we find ourselves in.

1) Find joy by seeking the bigger picture.

From headlines to the lunch lines it seems the worst of humanity speaks loudly. Just for fun, let’s add a nice dollop of stretched finances, rocky relationships, or chronic health problems to the mix and see how the smiles fade. We have an insidious enemy who sends fiery darts which make us want to stay curled up in bed with the cat and a bag of potato chips.

God wants our lives to display joy even in the middle of hard things. Are we keeping our eyes on the things of this world or do we have our gazed fixed on things above?

The only thing the world can offer us is temporary, illusive happiness and not true joy. As we all know, headlines change, the cat dies, and the bag of chips eventually empties out, right? Where does our contentment go and what is the source of our joy?

True joy can only come from a deep relationship with the Lord. Joy comes from deeply abiding in the truths of who God is and what His motives are toward us.

It is really easy to drill down and fixate on what is happening in the here and now and forget the importance of eternal things.

It’s ok to pay attention to problems and find solutions, but when it consumes us it will damage us. Having an eternal perspective will keep our hearts from drilling down into hopelessness and damaging us and those we love.

One of my favorite old hymns reminds me to keep an eternal perspective. 

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”- Helen Howarth Lemmel.

He will either walk with us through it or walk us around it. Either way, Because He is holding our hand, we can find our firm foundation of joy. Our God is in it for the long haul. He is not leaving us for lesser things or keeping us at arms length because we are too messy. The Lord wants us to trust His big picture as we look full in His wonderful face.

2) Beat the blues by keeping your heart meditating on truth.

There is an old saying that whatever you feed will grow, and whatever you starve will die. That’s true when it comes to issues of the heart. Whatever we let our heart feast on is what will take over our heart. Therefore, we must let TRUTH invade our hearts and completely surrender to His grace. 

The enemy of our souls is giddy with delight when our hearts dwell on lies. Lies are the fuel which will burn up our joy! We shouldn’t give the enemy more more inch of our beautiful hearts.

Do we let our hearts feast on lies from the enemy or truths from God’s word?

Ultimately, we must starve the lies of the enemy by keeping our heart meditating on what is noble, right and true. 

Joy is an unmistakable fruit of the spirit’s work in our lives. Let’s pull up a chair to His table and fill our plate with truth! As our hearts meditate God’s truth, the more room joy will have to flourish in our hearts and minds. Taste it, consume it, and make it a part of the daily menu.

Joy grows wild in the fertile ground of God’s word! 

3) Find joy by keeping your mind focused on His promises.

Oh, the enemy loves it when our minds get distracted and distorted. He knows if he can fill our heads with doubt or disbelief, he keeps us in a cycle of joylessness. Our adversary is the one who beats us up with the blues, and even dark thoughts.

When we feel overwhelmed, it is crucial to keep our minds anchored and focused on His unchanging promises. As the waves break over us, we are called to hang on to what we know is true about our Heavenly Father. His promises will calm the storm raging inside of us.

His unfailing, ever-faithful, always present promises are like a warm blanket for our blue hearts. The Lord’s promises spread abundant joy and peace as they sink into our mind through memorization and prayer. They are a firm foundation when our souls take to the high seas and we need an anchor.

While our circumstances may not change, our perspective will.  God has never broken a promise and He won’t start now. When things are dark and the pit seems deeper still, there is light and hope for where we are standing.

Praying the promises of God over our lives is a powerful weapon against dark thoughts, troubling circumstances, and overwhelming situations. As we pray His word, we will begin to see the protective, loving hand of our Good God move.

Our God is a Promise-Keeper. As we release our burdens, we will see a heart of gratitude begin to grow and replace a heart of grumbling. 

We will see the mind of Christ where there used to be a mind filled with shallow, self-centered thoughts. Our hearts will truly realize Jesus is enough for everything we face. He is our joy and exceeding great reward.

Joy looks good on God’s children. Let’s walk toward joy that surpasses all understanding!