Faith Talks host: Hello there, I’m Jana Faith.

And I’m Anna Faith.

And welcome to episode three of Faith Talks.

And today we’re excited to introduce a new series on the fruit of the Spirit.

And you know, as we were thinking through different topics, some we had mentioned before, and some of the ones that were emailed in, we were just thinking, sometimes it’s so easy to focus on all of the problems instead of the solutions.

And Galatians 5.16 says, And you know, if you’re walking in the Spirit and you’re having that walk with God, you’re not going to be struggling with those sin issues or be in bondage to those strongholds.

And that’s what’s so neat about the fruit of the Spirit is that every single fruit is actually inside of you as a person, Jesus Christ.

Faith Talks host: And you might think, there’s no way I could love my brother or be long-suffering with my friend.

But the truth is, Jesus is love and Jesus is long-suffering.

And he lives inside of you and offers you his fruit every day.

Faith Talks host: Okay, and you’re probably not just going to wake up one morning and say, wow, I just feel so gentle today.

But, you know, you can make a decision to live based upon that truth and not your feelings.

Now, our first topic that we’re going to do today is joy.

Now, when I think of a person who exemplifies joy, one of the first people or person that I think of is my pastor’s wife, and she’s actually my aunt.

Faith Talks host: We’re excited to have the privilege of having her here with us today and hearing more about her life and how God has taught her about what joy is and what it looks like.

Faith Talks host: And you know, one thing about joy is that often when you think of joyful people, these aren’t just the people living easy lives.

Sometimes they’re actually the people who have been through some of the deepest trials.

And my aunt is no exception in this.

So I’m just excited to have her here today and to hear more about just how God’s taught her joy.

So Aunt Beverly, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself and what God’s taught you through the topic of joy?

Guest: Thank you, Jana Faith and Anna Faith.

It’s my privilege to be here today with both of you.

Their Uncle Wayne has been my husband for 45 years. 39 years ago, exactly this time of year, in fact yesterday, was the date of probably the biggest trial in our marriage.

And it set the stage for really knowing what it was like to live a life of joy through the deepest trial.

I don’t know what happens when you start to cry, but here I am telling about something that was a very deep, dark trial in our lives.

We were young parents, had one daughter, Elizabeth, and a little son, two and a half years old.

He was diagnosed with a massive brain tumor in the front left lobe of his brain.

And on April 8, 1982, he had a surgery where the doctor removed that massive brain tumor.

And I thought when he came to tell us that it popped up like a volcano, but it was very highly malignant, and he only had a month to live, and we would have to make him comfortable.

I thought I feel like I was fainting, and my life was over.

But instead, I felt a surge of great joy.

And I know that that came only because you have a great God.

And my hope was not in what the doctor said or what I was thinking, but what God had shown us and had promised to us.

So what I want to tell you today is that you really can have joy in the deepest of trials.

And God is a faithful God.

Joy is not just a feeling.

Joy is something you sense from the Lord.

Joy is living, really living in the presence of the Lord.

And my husband and I had gone through this trial for, I would say, a few months before knowing something was wrong with our son and realizing that we did have to see God do something in our lives.

So just thinking through what he wants to do in each of our lives, if we can realize that he is our strength and he can give us peace and he can give us joy, it makes all the difference.

My life was a very happy life when I was growing up, actually.

I had a wonderful home and a very joyful father who exemplified trusting God through trials.

And I think that’s what helped me at this darkest time in my life, seeing an example of a father who had lived that life before me.

My husband also had godly parents and a very godly grandmother who knew how to pray.

But you don’t have to have that. to start your own pathway of joy and your own life of joy, you can say, today I’m going to let that be the flag that flies high from the castle of my heart.

That’s a little children’s song.

Or think of the verse in Nehemiah 8, verse 10, that says, The joy of the Lord is my strength.

And I’ve taken that verse before, girls, and I’ve just said, The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Or the joy of the Lord, actually it says your strength.

Or I could say the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Or the joy of the Lord is your strength.

So joy is something that makes the Christian life really worth living.

And you can have it in the deepest and darkest of trials.

Faith Talks host: Now you mentioned before this that your father was somebody you thought of when you thought of joy.

Is there any other people in your life where you feel like, wow, when I think of joy, I think of them?

Guest: definitely his mother was the same type of person she lived in the presence of the Lord in fact when she died she had her Bible open to Psalm 91 and of course that is a wonderful passage not only my grandmother but your grandmother did you know that girls your grandmother had the same passage that was being read to her by Aunt Joy we really do have a precious heritage but I want to emphasize again, for those who don’t have that heritage and who don’t have maybe parents who exemplified that or grandparents, you can still start.

Joy is living in the presence of the Lord, and you can have joy through trials.

In fact, we’re commanded to rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice.

Paul mentions that over and over, and when you think of somebody who went through trials, you think of Paul, but I think of Paul as a joyful person.

And I think that’s really

Faith Talks host: We were talking actually before the podcast about whether joy is a feeling or a decision.

And I like what you brought up about it’s really that relationship and it is Jesus.

And that’s so key.

Now, I know you named your first daughter Elizabeth Joy.

Is there a story behind that at all?

Guest: Just because we love the whole idea about, first of all, Elizabeth was one of the righteous This one’s in the Bible, the mother of John the Baptist.

But the word joy, because we wanted her life to be a life of joy, and the fact that we were having her brought so much joy to us, and the fact that joy is a fruit of the Spirit that we all need.

Yes, that was all part of naming her Joy.

Faith Talks host: That’s neat.

Now, do you have a definition of joy that you like to give if you were in front of a bunch of kids or something?

Guest: I like to just say that joy is living in the presence of the Lord.

Joy is more than happiness because you can be happy, but sometimes happiness fades away.

But joy is something very deep.

And joy is something that cannot be taken away from you if you’re in the presence of the Lord.

I mean, there are joys or happiness stealers like circumstances, people.

But joy is deep and real and something that as long as you’re walking with God and living in his presence, you will have.

Joy is emotion.

Joy is contagious, too.

I used to teach my children the little song, Who So Trusteth in the Lord, Happy Is He.

And we would sing it and we would all just enjoy singing it.

And it was contagious to have that joy and that happiness.

Faith Talks host: And one thing, when you know how you look at some people and you’re like, they just have the joy of the Lord on their face.

I think that’s something that’s often missed because sometimes you can have joy in your heart, but you struggle expressing it.

Do you have any thoughts on that?

Guest: I would rather be around a person that really was walking with God, and I knew it by watching their life, rather than just a person that maybe seemed like they were happy.

Real joy is deep, and real joy will come out in the trials of life.

You’ll see what that person’s made of.

I would say for all of us, we do need to be the kind of people that are showing others that the Christian life is the best kind of life, and it is the best to serve God.

So you do have to show it.

But for people who aren’t so good at showing it, for me, I would rather just be around a person that I know walks with God because their life is showing it through their reactions.

Faith Talks host: Well, thank you so much for joining us today and just taking time out of your schedule to speak with us.

Faith Talks host: Yes, and I know many of the listeners out there can probably relate with some of the trials you mentioned.

And I think it was just so helpful how you said when you went through that trial, that right when you heard the doctors just telling you what was happening with your son, that God just gave you that joy right there.

And I think that’s just, if we’re walking in the presence of God, he’s going to give us joy when trials do arise.

Faith Talks host: Yes, and one thing I would encourage you girls to do is to even just write out a list of different trials you’re maybe going through right now and talk to Jesus about them. and I know a message my dad preaches on count it all joy.

He actually preached it a couple weeks ago but he mentions the count is kind of like an accounting term that just to write out those trials and count, nope, I’m going to say all joy, all joy and just trust Jesus and not lean to your own understandings and that’s really a faith decision.

So by faith, thank God for your trials this week and maybe even share your journey with a friend who might be going through trials of their own.

Faith Talks host: And remember, girls, as you choose joy this month, remember that faith talks and faith walks.