If you choose to seek joy in life, you will be persecuted and betrayed by those who should love you. Jesus said: “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” (Matthew 10:36) You will find that everything you lose will be replaced with something better—something closer to the real thing:
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matthew 19:29)
The vast majority of the good we experience here on earth is merely a stepping stone to the real thing. These placeholders are necessary to train us to trust in God sufficiently to do what is required to obtain the real thing. Without the stepping stones, we would be both ignorant of the way to obtain what we desire and unwilling to traverse the path to obtain it.
There are some things that, once possessed, can’t be lost. These are the exception rather than the rule. While this means that you permanently possess far less than you think you do, it also means that the losses you endure are different than you think they are.
Anything you lose was never the real thing. It was merely a steppingstone to the real thing. Because of this, the loss is not really a loss. If you’ve lost something, you never really had it in the first place.
Rather than thinking of what you perceive as loss to be the removal of a positive thing, think of it as the revelation of something greater; namely, more information about what it is you still lack.
Jesus taught that every time we receive a blessing from him, we should be prepared to lose it. He explained that the fruits we bear in seeking and worshipping him will be constantly purged:
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (John 15)
When Jesus speaks of abiding in him (verses 4-7), he means to remain reconciled to him as he gives you more light and truth. Fruit buds and grows when you allow the flow of information from Christ to come into every aspect of your life. Fruit is worthless unless it endures. It requires a continuous connection to God to preserve the fruit. As you continuously seek him, he will show you everything that could take away your joy "that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." The purpose of additional light and truth—additional information—is to provide you with what you need to bear more fruit.
What we colloquially call sacrifice is a lot less about “giving something up” and a lot more about embracing something better:
27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matthew 19)
One of the things animal sacrifice shows is that obeying God's commandments will require you to give up or give away the fruits that you worked hard to obtain in trust that you will receive something of a different, but better form. God never actually asks you to “give up” anything. Instead, he repeatedly asks you to make room for something better. He will continue to do this as long as you live.
God will purge your fruit by “asking” you to give it up to him. Asking is in quotes here because while it may come through him actually speaking to you and saying “I want you to stop doing this thing or start doing this other thing that will change how your life goes,” it is much more likely that it will come by his showing you how what you previously thought was a good thing is actually not as good as you supposed.
And what if you don't want to know? What if you would rather believe that ignorance is bliss? If you seek to keep the fruit you have by ignoring what he wants to show you, you immediately remove yourself from the vine. You become a detached branch, and you are fit only for the flames.
What are the flames? They are reality. Reality will come for you whether you like it or not. Reality will test your ideas and beliefs whether you want it to or not. ALL people will be tested by this fire after they die and gain a perfect knowledge of things as they are, pertaining to this world. Those who willingly subjected themselves to the Master's guidance in this life with full purpose of heart until death will be prepared to endure that fire and will retain all the joy they thought they had—and much besides— forever. Those who fall short of this, to any degree, will be surprised by the depth of pain they will experience. But this is not all.
Jesus said: "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3) He wasn't saying these people were clean just because he spoke some words. He was saying they were clean because they obeyed what he had taught them. They responded to additional information by reconciling their lives to it. In doing the same, we are justified.
However, reconciling yourself to what he has said is not the same as staying reconciled to what he will say in the future. That will require letting go of even more.