Keys To Maintaining Joy In Desperate Times

Keys to Maintaining Joy in Desperate Times

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

PRELUDE: - These are my keys, they give me access to my house my car, my office, the staff bathroom, my shed and so on, you get the picture. If you like me have ever lost or misplaced, your keys you know you go through dire straights to find them because keys are necessary to really function in your everyday life. Today I want to give you 4 keys to maintaining joy in desperate times.

Prayer

1 Peter 1:6–9 “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls”.

Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”.

OPENING: - There is an old proverb that says desperate times call for desperate measures! The meaning of this proverb is that in adverse circumstances actions that might have been rejected under other circumstances may become the best choice.

The Origin: This phrase likely originates with a saying of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, which appears in his Aphorisms: "For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable."

We now find ourselves living this very proverb. An extreme disease has spread across this world and extreme methods of cure are in place. We have restrictions placed upon us, travel has stopped, wearing protective mask is the new standard, social distancing is the new way of life, and stay at home orders are in affect. Everything is upside down.

There is a commercial on television that says something like dinning rooms have become offices, bathrooms have become break rooms, garages have become gyms, and the children have become the new co-workers. Things are totally different now and the stress level in people is rising dramatically. With the world literally on lockdown confinement to our homes, not being able to go to the beach, out to the parks, the restaurants, or have things the way we used to have them in these desperate times, the question becomes How do you maintain joy during this and other desperate times?

DEFINITIONS: - Desperate: - adjective feeling, showing, or involving a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with. Many feel this current situation is impossible to deal with, we have protestors in camouflage some carrying guns talking about we need to open the country even though we still have people dying by the thousands every day. The governmental and medical systems have made us more vulnerable than we ever thought we could be. Unemployment is equal to if not surpassed that of the great depression, people are hoarding toilet paper and other supplies unsure of what the future holds, and now a threat of famine with the meat processing factories closing down is an very real and looming possibility because of the coronavirus. I saw a news article about several U-Haul trucks parked outside of a funeral home full of bodies that were to be cremated but the funeral home was so back logged that they just haven’t been able to do it all. These are truly desperate times.

Joy: - noun a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. You’ve no doubt have heard people say that joy and happiness are not the same thing. They will say that happiness is circumstantial, it is based on outside influences and joy is not. That is true, happiness is regulated by outside influences, if it’s sunny outside and the humidity is low I am happy, if I get my stimulus check that will make me happy why because that is an outside stimulus that causes me to be happy. Yet when we talk about joy, it’s often a conversation about our emotions.

Joy is a knowledge that runs deeper than any emotions could ever go. Real joy is based in the knowledge of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Him being an ever-present help in trouble. That is true regardless of what is going on around us and cannot be changed.