How to Have Joy in the Midst of Suffering

Austin Huang:
A few years ago, I was back in college, and I was involved with this ministry on campus and there was this role that I was thinking about applying for, doing. And I was just like, “I don’t know if I should.” I wasn’t really feeling the joy in it. I wasn’t really feeling the direction from God in it, partially because I was just, I think, being selfish with my time and prioritizing other things.
Anyway, I’m just sitting with the Lord, and I’m just like, “God, just show me a sign.” So as you do, you flip open the Bible to a random page, and I flip to Psalm 16:11. And that for me was just like such confirmation. “You make known to me the path of life in your presence. There’s fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” I don’t know why that was a confirmation for me, but it just felt like it was.
And so today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about joy. And I think for this, to set the stage, I want to ask the deep question of why does joy feel so fleeting? Because I think there’s so many things that should bring us joy in life. Even the breath in our lungs should bring us joy, but why does it feel so fleeting for Christians?

David Platt:
Well, man, I think Psalm 16:11 is the answer.

Austin Huang:
Yeah.

David Platt:
I’m laughing. I did a breakout at a conference recently where I was like, I talked about the random finger method for discovering God’s will, like just open up the Bible and whatever it is, that’s God’s will for your life. But it actually worked for you.

Austin Huang:
Yep, it did.

David Platt:
So it’s not like a… Yeah. I’d say some … I’m just trying to think of all the times I did that, and it was some totally random verse. But man, I’m glad it was a good verse for you in that moment.

Austin Huang:
Exactly what I needed.

David Platt:
But I actually think that verse is the answer because, okay, in your presence there’s fullness of joy. So not fleeting. Fullness. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So, okay, well that means if my joy is fleeting, then it’s because I’m seeking joy in something else other than God because joy in him is never fleeting. Pleasure in him will last forever.
Okay. Well then who or what am I seeking for joy or trusting for joy or looking to for joy? And it’s not that… So even as I say that, okay, now another text come to my mind, 1 Timothy 6, God gives us good things to enjoy. He’s the author of all kinds of good gifts.

Austin Huang:
Yeah.

David Platt:
I can name innumerable good gifts in my life, people in my life, things in my life, just so much. He’s been so gracious to me. But I guess that’s… All right. Now, that’s the key then, right? That we really do find our source of joy in the giver of those gifts and not in the gifts themselves such that when Job 1, the gift is taken away, gifts are taken away. We can say the Lord gave, the Lord took away, blessed by the name of the Lord. I still have the One who is the One who gave all these things to me in the first place. So I think whenever we find ourselves with fleeting joy, it’s actually a good opportunity for us to ask the question, what is our ultimate source of joy here? Does that make sense?

Austin Huang:
Yeah, no, that’s really good. I don’t know what your take on it, I would love to hear, but joy and happiness, I feel like sometimes I know they’re like synonyms of each other in a way, but I like the phrase that people say is like, happiness is temporary, joy is eternal. Maybe, that’s not super accurate, but that for me helps me understand like, “Okay. Well then circumstantially if things are going well, I can be happy right now, but ultimately I know that my joy is found in Christ and him alone.”

David Platt:
Randy Alcorn was really helpful for me in this like walking through, I think about Psalm 1, like blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked and stands in the way of sinners, or sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord on his law. So that picture of delight, but that word blessing is actually like happy.

Austin Huang:
Yeah. That’s right.

David Platt:
And so biblically there’s actually… I don’t know… I do think the distinction you’re making is helpful just having two different categories. I’m not sure if I would put it in. I think we’re supposed to be happy in God all the time, like all the time. Now, that doesn’t mean … So if you’re, I mean always, what do we mean by certain words?
But if happy means, oh, you’re just like this light laughter filled moment. No, of course not. That’s why yes, Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 7, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. So there’s a way to have sorrow and joy, but I would even say there’s a way to have sorrow and happiness. And then, okay, well, how is that possible? And now, I’m thinking about Mueller’s quote. My business every day, George Mueller is … And my first chief most important thing in every day is to be happy in God.
So now, we’re going back to joy, happiness when it’s found ultimately in God and not in the circumstances of this world, then it’s possible to experience a happiness and joy all the time. This is not just theoretical either. It’s just kind of personally for me. I remember that I was having my time with the Lord one morning, this was during like the Christmas season recently. And I usually have a playlist that I listen to when I’m spending my time with the Lord, just like a quiet time playlist. I put it on shuffle. It’s kind of my random finger method.

Austin Huang:
There you go.

David Platt:
So I’m just like trusting the Lord and direct the shuffling to whatever songs I need to be singing based on this playlist I’ve got. And so all these songs, I had a Christmas worship playlist that I was using, and it’s like every song was like, joy, joy, joy. And honestly, I was walking through just some really heavy hard days. And at first, I was like, “I don’t think I can take it. ” And so I was like, “Okay, not that one.” And so I just moved to the next song. And the next song was another joy song. I was like, “All right. Move to another one. And they were all joy songs.” But then I just kind of sensed the Lord saying, “Hey, this is possible. This is the miracle of my Holy Spirit in you that, yeah, things are hard right now. And yes, there’s a reason your heart’s heavy, grieving. There’s a reason you’re in tears right now. And in my presence, there is fullness of joy.”
And then it’s like, “Okay. Well, how is that possible? How is it possible to have joy in grief, and joy in heaviness, and joy in sorrow? Well, because you know, you’re clinging to all these truths about who God is, about what God says, about the fact that suffering is not the end. That gives me a lot of joy to know whatever grief I’m walking through is not the end of the story, but whatever heaviness I’m walking through is not the end of the story.
This is not the last chapter here. And so there’s hope in that. This is why Paul can say in Philippians 4, “Rejoice always in all circumstances.” 1 Thessalonians 5 says the same thing over and over and over again that we can be joyful. Why? Because we have God.
And man, I think about one thing Piper said when we were talking with him when he just said, “When the world is like life and the world is falling apart around you and you have joy, what that proclaims, not just to the world, but to even your own heart, okay, he is fullness of joy.” And so take it all away, and I still have joy and that what a powerful way to live, but it’s a fight to live in, a fight for joy in that sense, to just keep reminding yourself, okay, Lord, I want this joy. I want to experience this joy that’s found in you even though these things are not going the way that I want them to go or these things are really, really heavy, and I’m hurting in particular ways.

Austin Huang:
Well, that’s what I love so much about the Christian hedonism idea of that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And it’s honestly like it’s an offensive thing to, I guess, the flesh or the desire to work for our own righteousness. It’s an offensive thing to think that God wants us to seek our joy.
It feels weird to think that God would want us to seek our own joy, but if that’s how he designed us and created us and if that’s actually how he gets the most glory, then I think there’s permission there for someone listening to this, someone watching this. Yes, there is a sense of self-denial, carry your cross, pick up your cross daily, crucify your flesh.
But the whole point of what Christ says, like, “My yoke is easy, my burden is light,” when you do my commandments, he’s not saying that out of a, “I’m going to force you to do this against your will.” It’s like, I’m freeing your will to come into alignment with the truth of that God is glorified in you when you seek joy in him.

David Platt:
So good. Yes. And not even just permission, but encouragement, like command. So I’m going to put together Psalm 16 where you started. “In your presence there’s fullness of joy, at your right hand, pleasures forevermore.” And then we’re commanded. So I’m going to Psalm 27, “You have said seek my face.” That’s a command. “And so your face, oh Lord, do I seek.” And this is a picture of, okay, he’s saying, “Seek my joy. In my face, in my presence there’s fullness of joy. So seek it. Seek the joy. I’m commanding you.” That’s a good command. It’s kind of like John 15, “Abide in my love,” which even that’s another great example because then he goes on to say, right after that, he said, “I write these things to you or say these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full.”
God wants my joy. Even in the hardest moments of life, he wants me to experience joy. That’s awesome. And again, we were talking about this as we talk about the fruit of the Spirit. That’s only supernaturally possible. Only the Holy Spirit can produce that in us. I was actually having a conversation with my wife about this morning with Heather, and we’re talking about, and yeah, she was just expressing some struggles, and I was just praying over her and really over us and just saying, “Lord, help us to live in the resources you’ve made possible for us, including the joy that you’ve made possible for us. Help us to live in it.”
Man, one other thing that’s come to my mind, this was Matthew 5 when Jesus says, “Rejoice and be glad when people speak all kinds of evil falsely against you on my account.” How do you do that? How do you rejoice? So you get slandered. How do you rejoice? How do you see people saying something about you and be like… And it’s really interesting, Luke’s account, Jesus says, “Leap for joy.” How do you do that? How are you getting criticized canceled, slander, whatever? And you’re like, “Whoa, this is awesome. Leap for joy.” How do you do that? That’s a supernatural thing.
There’s nothing natural about rejoicing in those moments. Nothing natural. It’s totally supernatural, but it’s clearly possible. He’s actually commanding it. Rejoice and be glad. It’s a command to rejoice and be glad. So okay, well, how is that possible? Well, it’s definitely not possible if your joy is found in what others say about you. No way. That’s impossible. The only way that’s possible is if you’re focused on what God says about you, that’s the only way it’s possible.
And so this is where, oh man, there’s so much here, Austin. This is where I’m so thankful for hard days and even genuinely for a slander because, yes one day, we’re not going to have to deal with these things, free from sin and evil and sorrow in this world. But while we’re here, while we’re here, it’s actually these things that show, reveal how we’re seeking our joy in what people say about us. Because when that hurts, it’s like, “Okay. Well, apparently I am looking at that for some joy.” And it’s like an opportunity to recalibrate and say, “Nope, I don’t need to seek my joy there because the praise of me is fleeting.
I need to seek my joy in God alone because his Word is sure.” And so these are ways that God refines us and leads us to deeper joy than we ever could have imagined when part of our joy was bound up in what others say about us or what our circumstances were in this world when those things are stripped away and you’re like, “Whoa, I mean it’s Job 42. Now, I’ve seen you. Whoa, I’ve seen you in a way I never imagine you.” So when we struggle for joy, I guess maybe the takeaway is just ask God, “What are you doing in my life to help me press into deeper joy in you through this?”

Austin Huang:
Yeah. That’s so good. And I trust that this will be a huge encouragement for people not to manufacture this joy and be like, “Okay, well, if all these songs are, like you said on your shuffle, if they’re all about joy, then I just have to sing for joy.” No, no, no. The God is giving you permission to also wrestle with this. I think the 2 Corinthians 12, Paul is pleading with God, “Take this thorn away from me, this thorn in my flesh away from me.” But then he concludes by saying, “Okay. Well, God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
And so Paul says, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” And so in his boasting, just a couple verses earlier, he says, “This isn’t good. I don’t like this, but I’m going to boast.” And when I think of the word boast, there has to be a little bit of joy in it. So even when he says, “For the sake of Christ and I’m content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities, for when I’m weak, then I’m strong.”
And so that for me has just reshaped the way I think about my Christian life, that in the moments when I am tired, when I am exhausted, when I am beat down and bogged down by the weight of the world around me, I can actually look up to heaven and say, “This is great.” And I get to rest in the fact that I am weak, I am not God. This is not on my shoulders to carry this world. I get to rest in the fact that the God of the universe is holding all things together by the power of his Word and what he has spoken. And I don’t have to trudge along trying to keep everything together that I can just let go and in a way, let God let him lead me in this way.

David Platt:
Man, so good. I think about the other texts that are coming to my mind that goes to our… Yeah, he didn’t like this thorn in this flesh, but he could rejoice in what it was producing, a greater dependence on God, a greater, like you said, awareness of his own weakness. And that’s what all the texts about joy. The thing about Paul, James, like Romans 5, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” So we’re rejoicing in hope. This is not the end. There’s more here. And then he goes on to say, “Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance faith, and all these different things that he’s producing.”
The same thing in James, James 1. “Consider it joy, my brother, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” And you keep reading on, it’s like, “So you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.” Who doesn’t want that? I don’t want to be lacking in anything. I want to be full life.” And he says, that’s actually what trials of many kinds produce as you press into God, a maturity, a completion not lacking in anything of fullness. And again, back around to where you started, a fullness of joy that really is only found in God, that can’t be found in the things of this world. That is available for us to live in by the fruit of his Spirit in us.

Austin Huang:
Yeah, it’s so good. David, for somebody who might be listening, who is hearing what we’re saying and they’re saying,” Okay, I like that. I like what you’re saying about joy in the suffering, but I just feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, and I can’t seem to get a glimpse of God the way you guys are saying.” Would you mind praying for that person to just be able to, like we said in that other episode, not get a glimpse, but rather gaze upon him to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

David Platt:
I totally want to pray that. And I just want to say… And I’ve not shared specifics. I’ve referenced different things just in my own journey, but yeah, I’ll just go ahead and say it. My time with the Lord this morning before we even had this conversation, I don’t even think… Yeah, I didn’t know we were going to have this conversation, but in my time with Lord this morning, as I’m journaling, I’m like, “Lord, I’m really struggling for joy.” That’s what I was writing out. I don’t know where the lines are of depression and clinical depression or this or that, but I was like, “I just feel really low today, God.”
Yeah. I’ve felt low in recent days. All the things we’ve just said, they’re not theoretical. This is the overflow of me pressing in this morning to saying, “Spirit of God, I need the joy that only you can give.” And so God, I do pray for that over every single person who’s listening to this right now, as I pray this over Austin and myself, God, we want to experience fullness of joy that you promise are at your right hand. We want to experience pleasure forevermore.
And God, we praise you. There’s nothing in this world that can give us that. Nothing, no one. So wean us off of this world. Help us to see just as you were helping me to see this morning, how I was looking to things in this world, circumstances in this world as the source of my joy. God, help us to let go of that endless fruitless quest and help us to hold onto and cling to and experience. God, I pray for every person who’s listening to this and for Austin and for my own heart, help us, God, to experience the fullness of joy that you promise to us as we seek you, as we trust in you, as we worship you, as we wait on you, as we rest in you.
We praise you, God, for the promise that one day all the griefs and sorrows and heaviness of this world will be gone. You’ll wipe away every tear from our eyes, and we will experience unhindered, unhindered communion with you and fullness of joy with pleasures forevermore. We love you, God. Thank you. Thank you for who you are. We praise you as the Giver of all good gifts and the Source of all joy. We pray for this fruit of the spirit in our lives, in Jesus’ name who makes all this possible, amen.

Austin Huang:
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Everyday Radical. We pray that it encouraged you in many ways. We do this every single week. So be sure to subscribe or follow to not miss the next episode. We’ll see you then.