How to Maintain Joy in Your Life

By Jim Wilson

"Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, rejoice." (Philippians 4:4) "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." (Psalm 51:12) Have you ever felt like you are just wasting away, like your strength is sapped? The normal Christian life is a life of joy. Yet many (if not most) Christians are not consistently joyful. What is it that keeps us from obeying the command to rejoice always? Often, it is unconfessed and unrepented sin that hinders us from living a life of joy. In this short booklet, Jim Wilson shares the story of his early Christian walk and his journey towards understanding the connection between repentance and rejoicing in the Lord. With Scripture, graphs, and clear explanations, he helps us see how failure to confess sins quickly steals our joy and how keeping short accounts—both with God and with others—sets us free to rejoice in the Lord no matter the circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Community Christian Ministries
• Release date: May 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781882840601

Jim Wilson

Jim L. Wilson (DMin, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary) is professor of leadership formation and director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Gateway Seminary. He has authored many books, including Future Church: Ministry in a Post-Seeker Age.

Book preview

Maintain_Joy_cover_color_website_and_amazon.jpgHow to Maintain Joy in Your LifeHow to Maintain Joy in Your Life, by JIM WILSON, published by Community Christian Ministries, Moscow, Idaho

Published by Community Christian Ministries

P.O. Box 9754, Moscow, Idaho 83843

208.883.0997 | www.ccmbooks.org

Jim Wilson, How to Maintain Joy in Your Life

Copyright ©2006, 2012, 2017 by Jim Wilson.

First Edition 2006. Second Edition 2012. Third Edition 2017.

Cover by Rachel Rosales, Orange Peal Design, orangepealdesign.com.

Interior design and graphs by Valerie Anne Bost.

Printed in the United States of America.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright holder, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are from the the Holy Bible, New International Version®,

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® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked

nkjv

are from the New King James Version®, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Version: 20230420Kindle

How to Maintain Joy in Your Life

For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. (Rom. 8:29)

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. (Rom. 6:12

nkjv

)

But now that you have been set free from sin, and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Rom. 6:22)

These texts tell us that we should be like Jesus Christ. Jesus did not save us so that we could sin—He saved us so that we would not sin. One of the