Tag: Joy

Joy and the Spirit

If you read the verses listed in yesterday’s post, you may have noticed some commonalities between them.  Joy used with faith.  Joy referenced with the Spirit.  Joy as a way of life, not an emotion.

I fear that one of the greatest disservices we have done to the Christian faith is perpetuate an untruth that the life of a follower of Christ is a guaranteed happy life.  We are not assured of “happiness” when we accept Christ.  What we are assured is that we have a good God-given purpose.  Embracing that purpose is the key to living our best lives, satisfaction and the joy that ensues from having served our Creator in the way He would have us serve.

Calvin Miller wrote, “Joy is our response to the creation of God.” (Joy: Cultivating Spirit-given Character, Thomas Nelson Pub. 2008).  I get my greatest spiritual joy from contemplating the intricacies of God’s handiwork.  Have you ever thought about how amazing the human ear is?  It takes speakers of all shapes and sizes to accurately produce the sounds of music.  Yet, the tiny membrane in our ear vibrates in such a way that our brain can interpret all the sounds we hear.  Scientists have attempted to explain emotions through chemical reactions related to our sensory organs.  But even happiness is a creation of Almighty God.  We wouldn’t have the ability to feel excitement, infatuation or awe without them having been created by God and given to us in the makeup of our bodies.

During this week of fellowship and thanksgiving, I pray that you find yourself joyful that God has given you life, a good life with a good purpose.  And I pray that you find joy in the simplest of God’s creation.  Puppy breath, the need for hugs and love for family are given to us by the Lord so that we may find joy in His beautiful creation.

Let’s Consider Joy…

…first, since love is such a vast subject as a component of the Fruit of the Spirit (FoS).  We’ll save love for later and study it more thoroughly.

Joy, χαρά chará; gen. charás, fem. noun from chaírō; 

“joy in the Holy Ghost,” meaning the joy which the Holy Spirit imparts by His influence; (Rom.) 15:13; 2 Cor. 1:24; 2:3; 7:4, 13; 8:2; Gal. 5:22; Phil. 1:25

Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (NASB:95)

Paul wrote about joy in Romans 15.13 as it related to “the power of the Holy Spirit” and also alluded to the combination of joy and peace, two components of the FoS.  I challenge you to look up the other verses above from 2 Corinthians and Philippians to see how closely they are tied to the Holy Spirit and FoS.  These verses are the ones in which “joy” is translated from the same word as used in Galatians 5:22.  Read the verses to see what connection, if any, is there.  Once you complete the “assignment”, make sure to come back tomorrow and we’ll discuss what you discovered!