DAY 23 — Joy in the Hard Places

Joy is easy when life is smooth. But what about when obedience leads you straight into hardship? That's exactly what we've been talking about yesterday, and again today.

Hardship in obedience was my reality during our journey of adopting six children across six years. I won’t pretend it was all smiles and Hallmark moments. Near panic attacks, exhaustion, and loneliness were part of the process. But as the weight pressed down, I found myself praying something unexpected: “Lord, I don’t want to go through my life burdened for You—I want to enjoy what You’ve called me to do. Give me joy, even when it’s hard. Blow people away with what You can do through me and how you choose to bring families together.” And He did.

That’s the miracle of joy: it can spring up in the middle of struggle, not because we muster it, but because God supplies it. Paul knew this. He prayed for believers to be “strengthened with all power… so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joy” (Colossians 1:11 ESV). He understood that joy in hardship is impossible apart from the Spirit’s power.

Guilt won’t sustain joy in hardship—only the gospel will.

David Platt says it this way: “A low sense of guilt is not enough to cause us to love sacrificially… rather, it’s a high sense of the gospel that compels a willing, urgent, joyful, uncompromising, grace-saturated, God-glorifying obedience in us.”

A guilty conscience may push you to try harder for a while, but it won’t last. What sustains joyful obedience is knowing the gospel—that you are loved, redeemed, and strengthened by God Himself.

That’s why Paul could rejoice even in suffering. He knew joy wasn’t circumstantial; it was Christ Himself, alive and at work in him. And the same is true for you.

Drink Deep

Ask yourself: What is it that moves my heart? What is God doing that I can join Him in, even if it’s hard? Then pray: “Lord, give me not just endurance, but joy, as I follow You into hard places. Strengthen me with Your power to keep going, with joy that only You can give.”