Joy In My Heart – Frank Poland: Lyrics & Music – As I read an article by Dr. William F Holland, Jr. in the August 23rd Chattanooga Times newspaper, I was reminded how, as a child, we sang the song ‘I’ve got joy, joy, joy down in my heart’ in Vacation Bible School. The article asks if we still have that joy in our heart as an adult. Using the article as my motivation, the following lyrical prose was created.
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Joy in My Heart
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When I was just a child, with little care or fear,
At Vacation Bible School, the sweetest song we’d hear.
“I’ve got Joy, joy, joy down in my heart,” we’d gladly sing along,
With youthful hearts and smiling faces, lifted by the song.
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But now that I am older, I pause and ask today,
Does that same joy still live within, or has it slipped away?
Can you say with confidence, when life’s not going right,
“I’ve got joy, joy, joy within my heart, and hope within my sight”?
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Humanity has always searched for peace within the soul,
Seeking some contentment that might somehow make us whole.
We chase success and pleasures, believing they’ll suffice,
Yet lasting joy is found when God becomes our light.
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Rebellion steals our happiness, and ignorance can blind,
While selfishness and stubbornness can trouble heart and mind.
We may appear quite moral, and religious in our way,
Yet never truly meet the One who gives us life each day.
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There is a war within us, though few can see the fight,
A struggle between our wishes and what God says is right.
We hear the voice of conscience calling us to choose,
To follow what the Lord commands—or follow what we choose.
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When we obey His leading, our hearts begin to sing,
A quiet joy awakens as we trust our Heavenly King.
But when we turn against Him and choose our selfish way,
The conscience slowly darkens, and our joy begins to stray.
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Would you rather be your own master, carrying every load,
Discouraged and defeated as you travel your own road?
Or would you place your life within the Father’s loving care,
And find His joy and hope renewed through every prayer?
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Scripture tells us plainly that we serve the one we choose;
We become the servants of the master we obey and use.
Romans reminds us clearly that our choices make us bound,
For whom we choose to follow is the master we have found.
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The joy of God is more than just a feeling for a day,
It gives the heart its courage when the world is in the way.
Nehemiah proclaimed it with a truth that still is strong:
“The joy of the Lord is your strength,” where God’s people belong.
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But joy and sin together cannot comfortably reside,
For one will fill the heart while one must step aside.
You cannot serve two masters, nor walk upon two ways,
For what controls your heart will shape your nights and days.
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Joy and purity together once were simple things to know,
Like children singing freely before they learned life’s woe.
We didn’t need to understand the mysteries of life,
We simply sang with innocence, untouched by adult strife.
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Perhaps the child still living deep within our hearts
Is waiting for the moment when a new song finally starts.
Perhaps the joy we once knew has not completely gone,
But waits for us to turn again and walk with God at dawn.
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful, as grown-ups here today,
To sing the song we learned as kids in that familiar way?
To lift our hearts and voices, as we did so long ago,
And sing with childlike confidence the truth we now can know:
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“I’ve got joy, joy, joy down in my heart,
Down in my heart,
Down in my heart today!”
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Not merely words from childhood.
Not simply an old refrain.
But joy renewed through Jesus Christ—
A living song again.
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