That's Trip Lee's title track off his latest album, Rise. Trip, as you know, fighting for joy in Christ is a daily battle in the Christian life. So how do you pursue joy in Christ and is this something that you set out to achieve every given day? Last time in episode 593, you shared with us about your daily trials.

So now talk to us about pursuing joy in God in the midst of these struggles. Yeah, it's definitely a pursuit because if I don't set out to find or achieve joy in God in any given day, I just won't have it. One of the unlikely gifts of even suffering, the kind of suffering that I've been through in the past few years with chronic fatigue, which is small suffering compared to a lot of people's others, but one of the things that that does, it tears down some of the idols that I look to for joy.

And so I'm tempted to find my joy in success or my own spiritual performance or how good of a husband I am or my relationship's going well. When I wake up in the morning, that's when I'm tempted to go to find my joy. So if I don't fight to find it in God, I just won't.

So the main things I'm doing every day to fight for joy is I'm trying to look away from those things. I'm fighting in my heart to look away from those and fighting to really look to Jesus. For me, it happens mainly in the Word and in prayer. So for example, right now I'm reading the Gospel of Luke, and as I'm reading through this incredible story about Jesus and the things he did and the things he said, I'm pleading with God to open the eyes of my heart to see how incredible Jesus is.

So when I'm reading chapter one and everyone's rejoicing at the coming of this King, I'm asking myself, "Man, does my heart rejoice like this in Jesus? And why not? God, help me to rejoice. Help me to see." And so when I'm reading the Scripture, it's always this kind of back and forth with God.

As I'm listening to Him and I'm pleading with Him, "Lord, help me respond well. Give me grace. I need your Spirit." And it doesn't always happen right then, though. It's not this automatic switch I flip. Sometimes I leave with the same amount of joy I had before. But if I get so discouraged at my lack of joy that I'm unwilling to fight for it, then I will never have joy in Christ, because it is not a magic switch.

We have to fight for it through the Word and prayer and fellowship, etc., and all the means of grace God has given us, and God graciously grants it to us. But it's that consistent fight. For me, at least, it really bears fruit, not just one day here or there.

Consistency in that fight has been huge in my fight for joy. So it is like every day, individually, I have to fight. But it seems to me that when I'm inconsistent, inconsistency always leads to less joy for me in my experience, and consistency is always huge for me. Yes, discipline is so key, and joy in God is essential.

We talk a lot about joy and desiring God. So how do we avoid making joy into our idol? That was a question John Piper picked up and addressed back in episode number 120 in this podcast series. You can find it in the archive. Well, can fame and popularity make us happy?

For those of us nobodies who are not famous, we respond with a quick "no." But what would a relatively famous Christian like Trip Lee say? I'll ask him tomorrow. Trip's new album and his new book are both titled "Rise." You can find them at Amazon right now. I'm your host Tony Reinke.

I'll see you tomorrow.