Different Things God is teaching Me

Joy Despite our Weakness

Thought #1- [Galatians 5:22]
How can I live in joy (and re-joice) when I'm weak and screwing up so much?

Joy is listed as one of the fruits (products) of God's Spirit. Joy is a foreign concept to me and probably a lot of you. The reason being, because the knowledge of our past failures and an understanding of our weakness to produce future failures, keeps us reserved or mild at best in response to the command: REJOICE in the Lord ALWAYS!

How can I be joyful when I am so weak?

Honestly, I do not realize just how much power "joy" holds and just how much positive influence it is capable of. Some people get it. They have no problem being joyful, by God's grace they understand their identity in Christ and are not held by the identity of the "old man"/the Flesh; their former life, and they are just overflowing with a mysterious, heavenly joy that does not make them blind or impervious to the hurt of this world but rather to overcome it with this gift: joy. These people have been mercifully anointed and blessed by this gift.
So for the rest of us, how should our perception be? Is there any hope? How can we be joyful in light of our weaknesses? Just because we believe and go to our Physician, doesn't make us invincible or impervious to the sicknesses of sin; we are still susceptible. And it's hard to keep a good balance between acknowledging Christ's perfect righteousness upon us and our own sins/weaknesses.

How should our perception be? How can we be joyful and re-joice?

Thought #2- [Galatians 2:20]
Christ or The Flesh

A man can fall ignorantly into this snare without a forethought of craftiness or self-will on his part. It doesn't make this snare any less dangerous or painful. The snare that Satan & the Flesh try to breathe into our thoughts and ears is the idea that God's unconditional love gives us freedom to fulfill our selfish desires.
Truly, "Though we are faithless, He is faithful; He cannot deny Himself." Is He patient and suffers-long (longsuffering) with us so that we might continue breaking His heart with our idolatries and adulteries or is He forebearing and longsuffering because He wants to see us grow better from every fall? Galatians 2:20, Paul declares that when we believe in Christ, our Flesh is crucified with Him and in that "death" Christ now lives in us.  He goes on to say in a later chapter, "You have been called to liberty; only do not use Liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

What can we see from these passages that answers our previous question: 'How can I live in joy in light of my weaknesses and failures?' ?

I think part of the answer and key to living out joy (and a life of re-joicing) is to fully recognize and accept the implications of what it means for Christ to be living in us. If we have lost our old, captivating, sinful identity that would've condemned us to live lives eternally from a holy Creator, and that identity has been replaced with the presence of Christ, then surely, with Christ living in us, as creatures of freewill, we should be freely willing to let Christ and the rest of the Trinity to be working in and through us. If Christ is in us, we should be praying and studying to know, and then when we know, to desire and do what He desires and does.
Going back to joy, joy is listed as a fruit (or product) of the Spirit. The Spirit is the cause, and the nine fruits are the effects in the redeemed sinner's life. Joy is a product of the Spirit living in us. When we are truly accepting Christ and letting Him work in and through us, and doing and allowing nothing to hinder or quench His work by the lusts of the flesh (the "old man") then the blessing of fruit will come out from that, one of them being "joy".
So in light of our present circumstances, where are we at right now? Why is this "joy" so hard to obtain or receive? Well, two possible answers to that question are a) You are taking advantage of God's grace by fulfilling the flesh rather than God's will or b) You just need to accept by faith that God still loves you despite your falls.
Understand (this is a note to myself as well), understand that God steadfastly loves you and upholds you NOT so that you can continue being unfaithful to Him or seeking other lovers when He has bound Himself to you as your Love, your Husband. He is patient and faithful still, when you fall, not so that you can continue falling but so that you might accept the tender mercy and the gift of opportunity He has given you, to learn from that fall and walk better before Him. "Joy" is not a simple concept or action for most citizens of this broken world; redeemed or unredeemed. Though my eyes are beginning to see and understand this, I know it is something I still need to ask and seek the Lord in understanding it more and that He would give us the strength to do His will. He lives in us. Therefore, o my soul, let us not hinder or quench His Spirit but let Him do His work through us.

It is not a matter of hoping, "May God help us." I know, because He is our Father, that He will.