Joy is mentioned in the Bible so many times! Many times in Psalms, and so many times elsewhere. Psalm 28:6-7,
“Praise be to the LORD,
for He has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
and with my song I praise Him.”
Isaiah 26:19,
“But your dead will live, LORD;
their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.”
Psalm 33:1,
“Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise Him.”
Habakkuk 3:17-19,
“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to tread on the heights.”
Thessalonians 1:5-7,
“Because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.”
If there are so many times when the Bible talks about joy, then why is there so little of it in the church? So often, the only time we can be joyful and happy is during certain praise songs. Yet the second fruit of the Spirit is joy! “The only sin passion can commit is to be joyless.” That’s a quote from a Dorothy L. Sayers book. I don’t think I entirely agree with it, but I think it’s a good point. Passion—the passion we should have for God and Christ—should be a joyful passion. I know that it should also be a many faceted passion, but I think that joy should be a huge part of it. Why, then, is it so lost. And you might ask me what I mean by lost; there are many people in the church today who are happy and “spirit filled” and praise God, but I am trying to make a distinction between happiness and joyfulness. Happiness is ephemeral—lasting only a short time and only runs shallowly. But joy—it lasts for a lifetime and beyond and it fills a heart! I believe God created both, but I also think that He meant for one—joy—to be ultimately dominant. I like the way, when talking about joy, a dictionary puts it—“keep pleasure”. Whereas, the best you can get as a description for happiness is “delighted, pleased, or glad”. Those are all good, but the other, I think, is better. Have you ever had that feeling, when you talk about something the Lord has done which is wonderful and gives you awe at the thought of it… and right at that moment, there’s a sort of dancing feeling in your body, almost like a pain, but so mixed up with goodness that it isn’t a bad thing? I believe that that is joy—the joy of the Lord! A keep pleasure. And a pleasure that will go a long way before being used up.
So lets apply that meaning to some of those verses. In the first one, David’s heart leaps for joy, because God is good and has saved him. He writes a song to express that joy.
And in the second verse that I used, the dead rise up and shout for joy. That is what all the Christians will do, one day. And that day will be such a joy for us all, something to shout about!
And in the next one the writer tells the righteous to sing with joy. Imagine how horrible it would be if we all sang songs of praise and love songs to God, but without interest, in a bored manor, or out of duty. There are songs which should be sung with sadness or with mourning or with excitement or other things, but we should never do it without feeling! I do that all too often, and I find myself hating to go to worship. Sing with real, heartfelt joy to the Lord, and you will never get tired of it!
The next one is rather difficult. Most people don’t like to be joyful when nothing is going right in their house, but right here, Habakkuk is joyful. He gives the reason in the next paragraph. “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights.” That is so awesome! And so true! If you don’t feel like being joyful about something, especially when everything is going wrong, you can know that the strength of the Lord will enable you to get through, and will help you to be filled with joy.
And the next verse that I used talks about the same thing; joy through suffering. It reminds me of when Paul and Silas were in prison and they start to sing. I mean, that time, most people—most Christians—would prefer to moan and groan. They didn’t. They sang. And Paul encourages in this verse the fact that, when you are filled with the joy from the Holy Spirit, you are an excellent example to others. It’s one of the best ways to show that we are Christians. To be joyful.
So many times, when Christians encourage each other, they forget to be joyful. They state what is wrong, they condemn, and they tell how to fix it. But they don’t tell you how wonderful it is to follow in the ways of the Lord. (Now I’m being too condemning! hehe!) I hope I’m saying this the right way. What I mean is that so often when I learn from other Christians, I get so much good knowledge, but I feel very weighed down by the end of it. Some knowledge, I know, will be and should be a burden, but we as Christians have a duty to encourage, to tell the world of the Lord’s wonders. And His wonders, when properly understood, are truly a joy to the heart! I encourage all of you to be joyful when talking about the Lord, when doing your job, when your not doing anything but sitting around. He has saved us from our sins—that is something worthy of praise!
Shalom
