My name is Joy, but I don’t seem to have any joy in my life. Not that I am not born again, I am, but I hardly experience joy. It’s always worry upon worry over little things. The enemy always succeeds in getting me every time. Hmm, I’m tired. What kind of life is this? No joy.

But is this what God planned for me, ehn? If He did, then why did he name me joy?’…
I know, my dear reader, that you may be wondering what I’m talking about. You’re like, ‘What is she saying?’ I’ll explain better.

The Joy mentioned in the above sentence is me, and those were the struggles I was having before the Lord helped me.
Are you also like me? You have a powerful and wonderful Christian name yet you don’t seem to see its effect on your life. In fact, it’s the opposite you’re currently seeing. I understand. I was once in your shoes.
Let me continue…

Almost every time I’m worried about something. Most times, it’s something irrelevant like data sub, network, not waking up on time, lack of content, etc. They were indeed irrelevant. I would have joy for five minutes or so, but before you know it, something to worry about comes in, and the joy evaporates.

I remember a particular day I worried so much over something intangible. The worry was so bad that my forehead felt like someone was flicking a finger at it. It felt so heavy. My heart raced so much that I couldn’t sleep well…

I sometimes thought about all this, especially with the knowledge of my name being Joy. Hmm. Joy is spiritual, so it cannot be gotten from anywhere except from the Spirit of God. One can be happy and still not be joyful because happiness is physical.

Is it possible to have joy even in the midst of chaos? Yes, it’s very possible, but only with the help of the Spirit. You can be joyful and still not have any money or food to eat because joy is not based on what is physical or sight…

Here’s how it all came to an end.

I went in for my usual fellowship time with God a particular evening, and then He started to open my eyes to a lot of things. Mind you, before now, I had been praying to understand why my name wasn’t showing in my life.

Until you realize your problem and cry out for help, you might never get the needed solution. And of course, this problem took me about 14 years to realize. Yes, 14 years. So what was the problem? My name is Joy, but I’m seeing the opposite-worry.

Let’s continue. God responded to my cry and made me realize that what I considered normal wasn’t normal. Well, what are those things? Overthinking little things and getting worked up when things do not go as planned. Before now, I had thought it was just a normal reaction, but He made me realise it wasn’t. He opened my eyes to see that these were the main things the enemy was using to steal my joy.

I was shocked at this revelation because all this while I didn’t see it as anything.
Then I started praying. I admitted to all of these and presented it to him. The prayer went like this:

• God, I have come to realise that so and so that I considered normal wasn’t normal.
• These so and so are what I have been struggling with. Help me to overcome them.
• Let me not lose my joy no matter what.
• Help me not to worry or overthink anything, no matter how serious it is.
• Let the name you have given me speak forth in my life.

And so on. The prayer was answered immediately. I woke up the next morning feeling different; I knew something had happened to me. Different things happened that normally would trigger me into worrying, but it didn’t have an effect on me any longer. Sometimes the day would not go as I planned, or I would wake up later than usual, but still, I was able to get by without losing my joy…

Beloved, is your God-given name showing in your life? When people come around you can they see the effect of your name in your life? If they can’t, then something is definitely wrong. You need to cry out to God. Tell Him to reveal anything that may be causing it. Let me give you an example.

My name is Chidera as well, which means, ‘what God has written is written’ that is, ‘what God has written cannot be changed’ in the Igbo language. Every time I’m praying with this name, I always say some things like, ‘Let everything you have written concerning me come to pass, anything that you did not write concerning me, I refuse it from coming to pass’

So you also pray with the name God has given you. Don’t settle for anything less than what He has for you.
I pray the Lord will help you. Amen!