Tuesday, December 23, 2025
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13
True Joy In Every Season
Are you lacking joy this Christmas season? It could be because you are looking for joy in the wrong places. Just like peace, we reach to many different things to bring us true joy. We reach for the closest, quickest people, or objects to bring us “joy”, if only for a moment. A quick fix, a moment of numbness, a distraction from the truth of our circumstances, a cover for what is really not true about our Christmas – or our lives.
I confess that this year I thought putting up a Christmas tree, decorating the house, and playing lots of Christmas music would be everything I needed to cover up all the things about my life I wish were not true. But just as when we are expecting things other than Jesus to bring us peace, they cannot bring us joy either.
The only source for true joy is the most precious gift ever given – Jesus. As Tara Leigh Cobble says on her popular podcast, The Bible Recap, “He’s where the joy is.” He is the only place true joy can be found. True joy transcends relationships, bank accounts, debt, illness, and can be found in any circumstance – even empty chairs around the table and and empty house at Christmas. True joy is always in our hearts, no matter what our circumstances are. True joy is where we find the strength to keep going no matter what. True joy is how we keep our focus on him – because he isn’t just the reason for the season, he is the reason for everything.
Can we feel joy and grief at the same time? Yes. Can we feel joy and loneliness at the same time? Yes. All the emotions of a broken life in a broken world can live in the same heart with the peace and joy that a relationship with Jesus brings. When we have a deep abiding joy found only in Jesus, it never leaves us no matter what else is happening or what else we are feeling. He created us and knows our hearts inside and out. He cares about what breaks our heart, and his heart breaks for his children when they are hurt. But he has given us the gift of joy found only in him that never leaves us.
Maybe you have cast expectations on the Christmas tree in your living room, the lights, the decorations, or maybe the people in your life to bring you peace and joy this season. Soon the tree and decorations will go back to the attic. The people you are expecting to bring you joy will go home – or may never come at all. True joy is not seasonal, it is eternal. We can find true, lasting, and eternal joy in Jesus alone. Like peace, the joy we think we find in objects or people will fade, but the joy we have in Jesus never fades. We carry it in our heart along with peace, which gives us abounding hope – hope not found in a season, or a person, or things, or a fat bank account. In the light of eternity, these things are inconsequential. They may make life a little more bearable, but they are as fleeting as the wind.
So again, are you lacking joy this Christmas season? Look to the greatest gift of all, the tiny baby born in a manger who brought peace and joy for everyone. He is with you in this season and every season. We do not exist without him, but only exist because of him. In him we find everything we ever need – everlasting peace, joy, love, hope, and so much more. Stop reaching. Stop searching. Surrender your misplaced expectations to him and find true joy that never fades or runs out.
