Have you ever had a lousy day and prayed that joy would take over? Maybe a season of your life makes you wonder if you’ve lost the “joy of your salvation?” I’ve been there. It’s like my salvation is only holding hands with sadness and has lost its grip on joy.

So, I pray the prayer, “God, restore unto me the joy of salvation,” which comes from Psalm 51 and I hope that joy would eventually push off the burdens that are weighing me down. I want my salvation to be linked with joy and not disappointment. Good feelings instead of bad ones. Even though I know joy is not based on my circumstances and I understand that I can experience true joy in the midst of sadness, I still pray the prayer and hope for a personal pick-me-up.

But joy is more than a shot of energy or a temporary fix. Not only that, joy is more than just a personal issue. The problem with praying this prayer this way is that it can become a self-centered prayer rather an others-focused prayer, and joy is about more than just me.

Joy, when it is done right, makes an impact on the people around us just as much, if not more, than in our own lives.

We have an area in our house where our kids can run in circles around a giant wall. This makes for a fun game of chase and hide and scare and chase again. We do this a lot with the youngest child in the house. A few years ago it was our 7-year-old. A couple years ago it was our 5-year-old. Now, it’s our 2-year-old who runs away from us, running loop after loop, laughing so hard he is on the verge of tumbling to the ground. He is a picture of joy in this moment. Yet what makes this game really fun is how joyful his older siblings get when they see him laughing and having so much fun. His joy rubs off on them and they laugh with each other about how much fun their little brother is having.

When we are joyful, our joy extends to those around us. Tim Keller says that “we cannot minister to others except out of our own joy.”  If we lack joy we will find something to replace it. A critical spirit, an indifferent heart, a passionless soul … the list can go on and on. These qualities don’t encourage anybody.

Psalm 51:12-13 says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.”

See how our joy becomes a passion for others so that they might know the same joy?

Rather than praying this verse as a personal pick-me-up, see it as a mark on the path of righteousness and a banner for your witness. Experiencing the joy of salvation is so much more than feeling good about being a Christian.

By all means, ask God to restore your joy, but don’t let it exist down in your heart to stay (even though that is what the kids’ song says). Rather, let joy run like a river from your heart to those around you.