BIBLICAL JOY

"The fruit of the Spirit is… joy…" (Galatians 5:22)

We live in a sad world -- a world of despair, depression, lack of fulfillment, and dissatisfaction. Man defines happiness as an attitude of satisfaction and delight based upon present circumstances. He relates happiness to happenings and happenstance. It is something that can't be planned or programmed. 

Biblical joy consists of the deep and abiding confidence that all is well regardless of circumstance and difficulty. It is something very different from worldly happiness. Biblical joy is always related to God and belongs to those in Christ. It is the permanent possession of every believer -- not a whimsical delight that comes and goes as chance offers it opportunity. 

A good definition of joy is this: it's the flag that flies on the castle of the heart when the King is in residence. Christians can know true and lasting joy. 

A Christian's joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel, being produced in them by the Holy Spirit as they receive and obey the Word, being mixed with trials with a hope set on future glory. 

-- John MacArthur (1939-2025) in a sermon entitled "Joy and Godliness: The Epistle of Joy"

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COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

“The king rejoices in Your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories You give!... Surely You have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of Your presence.”  (Psalm 21:1,6 NIV)

“Count your blessings” is a popular phrase I’ve never related well to. The moment I try to list all God has done for me, I realize how woefully short my efforts fall. I can thank Him for my salvation, for the blessings of home, relationships, work, and ministry. But I know His grace extends far beyond that. Even if I spent a week, I could hardly cover everything adequately. And when I came to an end, all I’d have would be a mechanical list -- the exercise itself would take the delight out of my praise.

Yet even joy-filled King David didn’t attempt to cram all God’s wonders in a single hymn. Though he rejoices throughout Psalm 21, he hardly describes everything God has done for him. The king’s adulation rings through much of the psalter -- as if he couldn’t contain it in one place or time. But his masterful adoration is more than a list of thank-yous. David knew a secret of thanks it took me a while to uncover. Real thanks are tied to the nature of God. Here David offers gratitude to his Lord for specific blessings in verses 1-6 and ends describing God’s eternal gifts. All the psalmist’s joy cannot be separated from his Master’s presence. Without God, the king understands, even the richest gain would be empty. To know God deeply is the greatest blessing of all, and intimate knowledge comes with a lifetime of loving Him.

So instead of detailing every benefit God provides, like David I’ll thank Him for a few big ones today and spend time basking in His love. As I look closely into my Lord’s face, I can’t help but delight in His presence. 

-- Pamela McQuade, from “Daily Wisdom to Satisfy the Soul,” published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

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JOY WILL REIGN

How is it possible to become a joyful person in a pain-filled world? Look at the promise that comes right near the very end of the Bible:

"Let us rejoice and exult
and give Him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and His bride has made herself ready." (Revelation 19:7)

Heaven's groom gets the bride.

The joy that is in store for God's people is so great that the only image that can do it justice is the joy between a lover and his beloved. Then we will see the wedding of which the greatest weddings on this earth have only been a dim foreshadowing.

Then God will dance with His people. Then joy will reign undiminished and uninterrupted.

-- John Ortberg in “The Life You've Always Wanted”

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CHILDLIKE FAITH: RECKLESS JOY

So, exactly what is a “childlike faith?” For starters, it’s something not to be taken lightly. In Matthew 19:14, when the disciples rebuke those who have brought little children to Jesus, what does Jesus say? “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Clearly, Jesus is big on children. He sees something special in them. He defends them… But what is it about children’s approach to faith that’s so engaging? Though Jesus doesn’t get specific about that, the answer is in their approach to life. As children, we are not jaded by the sophistication of the world. We’re real. We’re humble. We’re willing to admit our needs and trust that others can help us. We’re unpretentious and adventurous. We’re lighthearted and imaginative. And we’re fearless, willing to take a risk -- a juvenile version of what the early twentieth-century Bible teacher Oswald Chambers calls “reckless joy.”

And then, of course, we grow up. And what happens? In many cases, we get jaded by the world. Instead of being real, we rationalize behaviors. We learn to put our personal spin on our shortcomings rather than deal with them. We become pretentious. We throw ourselves into all sorts of physical adventure but are cowardly regarding relationships, flitting from one person to the next, lacking the courage to commit.

We hide our needs from others. From God. From ourselves. We play it safe, settling for too little in life. Rather than live by faith, we embrace one of the many forms of legalism, be it a secular or religious version. Rather than try to please God with simple faith, we complicate things by trying to prove to Him how worthy we are by our works. We’re full of fear, but we mask it with everything from busyness to addictions to rationalization, as we desperately seek to convince ourselves that we’re content. In reality, we know little of Chamber’s “reckless joy.” 

-- Bob Welch in “52 Little Lessons from It’s a Wonderful Life”

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AN INEXPRESSIBLE AND GLORIOUS JOY

Everyone is looking for joy. Marketing companies know this. Every commercial [and internet ad] promises the same product: joy. Want some joy? Buy our hand cream. Want some joy? Sleep on this mattress. Want some joy? Eat at this restaurant, drive this car, wear this dress…

Joy. Everyone wants it. Everyone promises it. But can anyone deliver it? It might surprise you to know that joy is a big topic in the Bible. Simply put: God wants His children to be joy-filled. Just like a father wants his baby to laugh with glee, God longs for us to experience a deep-seated, deeply rooted joy.

The joy offered by God is different than the one promised at the car dealership or shopping mall. God is not interested in putting a temporary smile on your face. He wants to deposit a resilient hope in your heart. He has no interest in giving you a shallow happiness that melts in the heat of adversity. But he does offer you a joy: a deep-seated, heart-felt, honest-to-goodness, ballistic strong sense of joy that can weather the most difficult of storms.    

Peter referred to this joy in the opening words of his epistle: “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (I Peter 1:8-9) 

-- Max Lucado

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A JOY THAT LASTS

“But the angel reassured [the shepherds]. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior -- yes, the Messiah, the Lord -- has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!’”  (Luke 2:10-11 NLT)

“Joy to the world; the Lord is come;
Let Earth receive her King;
Let ev'ry Heart prepare Him room,
And Heav'n and nature sing.”  (Isaac Watts)

The problem with Christmas is that January comes. Reality returns. However joyful Christmas makes you, you can’t live in December for ever.

But imagine if Christmas could be rescued from the stress or sadness of just getting through Christmas. Imagine if January could be rescued from the disappointment if your joy was in getting to Christmas. Imagine if there were a joy that lasted -- that endured through January and wasn’t dented by reality. That kind of joy would be worth finding, wouldn’t it?

And Christmas does offer that kind of joy. It’s to be found, very simply, in getting it. Not in grasping hold of the commercial version of Christmas -- the tinsel, the tree, and the traditions -- but grasping hold of the events and the meaning of the first Christmas.

The people who experienced that first Christmas and understood its meaning found a joy that did not fade. So can you. Whether you’re a get-to-er or get-through-er, if you get the meaning of the first Christmas this Christmas, then you’ll get the feeling of joy, and find it’s a feeling that lasts. 

-- Carl Laferton in “Rescuing Christmas: The Search for Joy that Lasts”

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THE THRILL OF HOPE

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 15:13)

"A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn."  (from “O Holy Night”)

Does Christmas thrill you?

Children get excited at the coming of the season, and often we might feel a bit of a charge through experiencing their amazement, but the chores we go through to provide that for them are often the very things that rob us from knowing the wonder for ourselves. Plan the party, trim the tree, max out the MasterCard, wrap, ship, take a trip. And that's assuming we aren't one of the multitudes who find themselves with a case of the Holiday Blues.

So if Christ's coming into this world offers hope, and hope, as the song says, provides a thrill, how do we locate that experience amid the distraction and disillusionment of December?...

Might the disconnect have something to do with what we're hoping for or expecting? Max Lucado, in his book “God Came Near,” thinks so: "Hope is not what you'd expect; it is what you would never dream. It is a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I'm-dreaming ending… Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no, it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on a God who loves to surprise us out of our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction."  

--  Excerpted from an Advent Devotional by Shawn McEvoy

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THE IRREPRESSIBLE THEME OF JOY

“Be full of joy in the Lord always. I will say again, be full of joy. Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind. The Lord is coming soon.”  (Philippians 4:4-5 NCV)

To a large extent, joy flows from a certain kind of thinking. Cognitive psychologists remind us that always between the events that happen to us and our responses to them lie our beliefs or interpretations of those events. This thought helps us to understand the irrepressible theme of joy in the New Testament. The New Testament writers were engaged not so much in some form of positive thinking as in what might be called "eschatological thinking." That is, they viewed all events in light of the Resurrection and the ultimate triumph of the risen Christ.

-- John Ortberg in “The Life You've Always Wanted”

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JOYFUL ADORATION

“Joyful, joyful, we adore You,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow'rs before You,
Op'ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!”  (Henry Van Dyke)

God desires that our relationship with Him isn’t lived out of a sense of duty as much as a sense of joyful devotion. In other words, God longs for us to long for Him. In the beauty of His presence, we can’t help but find our affections set on God, our hearts captivated by His love. Caught up in the delight of God, powerful feelings of joy and gratitude swell within us and our natural response is worship -- words of thanks that roll off the tongue, songs of adoration that spring from the heart, or some other creative form of joyful praise. When we give back to God, the One who has gifted us with all good things, we reflect His beauty. 

-- Adapted from “Pursuing God’s Beauty” by Margaret Feinberg

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GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY

“Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’”  (Luke 2:10 NKJV)

The joy of discovering Jesus and the Kingdom of God surpasses anything else that you will ever know in this lifetime. Consider the joy you feel when you find money on the sidewalk. Or when you are out of town and unexpectedly run into someone you know. Or when you have lost a piece of jewelry and then find it. It is amazing how much joy we gain in finding and discovering something.

Yet, the joy of meeting Jesus for the first time and gaining entry in a new way of life exceeds the joy of everything else. There is no joy like that of being part of the Kingdom of God. Incomprehensible joy. Divine joy. Unswerving joy. That is Jesus joy! 

-- Allen R. Hunt in “Nine Words”

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