Listen and Pray: The Key to Joy
Click the button below to listen and pray through this passage. This practice will take about 7 minutes.
Read
Isaiah 9:2-4 (NLT)
The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.
3 You will enlarge the nation of Israel,
and its people will rejoice.
They will rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest
and like warriors dividing the plunder.
4 For you will break the yoke of their slavery
and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.
Isaiah 22:22
I will give him the key to the house of David—the highest position in the royal court. When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them;
Pray
Jesus,
You are the Key that opens what I cannot.
You break the yoke I have carried
and release me from the weight of making my own joy.
I lay down the pressure to feel a certain way.
I release the belief that joy must be earned or maintained.
Open the doors of my heart to Your light.
Let me find joy not in circumstances,
but in Your presence—
where freedom lives,
where burdens fall away,
and where lasting joy is born.
Amen.
Listen & Reflect
As we prepare to enter God’s presence today, find a comfortable posture and gently close your eyes.
Take a slow breath in… and a long breath out.
Again—inhale God’s light… exhale the weight of expectation.
As your settle into your breath, repeat these words to your soul.” Jesus, You are my Joy.”
Today’s Scripture brings us back to 2 different prophecies in Isaiah.
The first verse probably feels familiar as we have meditated on it this Advent season as we wait to receive Christ’s light. Today we expand upon that as we see Christ as the one who holds the key that unlocks the door to that light and breaks the chains of darkness that have burdened us. This is what leads to true joy…not the joy of the world that is based on circumstances, preference, and emotion.
Of all the Advent themes, Joy can sometimes feel the most elusive. Living joyfully in the midst of darkness, uncertainty, or apathy feels far-fetched. After all, we can’t just whip up joy at a moment’s notice or force our emotions into action.
Joy, in Scripture, is never something we manufacture. It is something we receive.
Joy is not a switch we can turn on but rather a state of being that gets cultivated in the presence of Christ.
As we see from these prophesies of Isaiah, joy comes when a yoke is broken, after a burden is lifted, after darkness loses its grip.
This joy does not arise from changed circumstances alone—it rises from freedom.
The darkness can often feel like an oppressor in our lives. It sneaks up on us to steal our joy and keep us in a heavy fog that makes us feel trapped. Christ came to set us free from oppression…including that of sin and darkness.
Isaiah 22 shows us that Christ is named as the One who carries the key.
The key that unlocks what has been shut tight by fear, shame, striving, and despair.
The key that opens doors no human effort can force open.
So often we believe joy is our responsibility—something we must produce, maintain, or prove. But Advent gently releases us from that pressure. Joy is not a performance. Joy is found in a presence.
When Christ enters, the door opens. Light floods the space where darkness once lingered. The heavy yoke of self-made happiness—the demand to feel okay, cheerful, successful—is shattered.
There is joy simply in standing before God. In being seen, known, and freed. In letting Jesus unlock what we could never unlock ourselves.
This is Advent joy: Not loud or forced, not dependent on how life is going, but steady and deep—rooted in the presence of the One who opens the door invites us into His light.
Sit quietly with the following questions.
Notice what surfaces without rushing to answers.
- Where have you felt pressure to producehappiness rather than receive joy?
- What door in your life feels closed, heavy, or dark right now?
- What would it look like to let Christ hold the key instead of striving to force the door open yourself?
- How might releasing the burden of self-made happiness make room for true joy?