Joy: be careful out there!
Joy is a required state-of-mind for a Christ-follower. Sometimes when life comes crashing in around you, it’s hard to remember that. With disease, war, famine, uncertain futures, broken relationships, rising costs, and more – joy can easily take a back seat in your life. Yet, joy is God’s expectation for you as your way of thinking and living and being. In God’s Word it’s spoken of as “great,” “abundant,” “exceeding,” “constant,” and “unspeakable.” How can you be joyful when life is anything but happy at times?
The answer lies in the Christ-follower’s definition of joy. Let me tell you what joy is not. . . joy is not happiness. Happiness is dependent on your circumstances; joy is not. Happiness comes when you get what you want, and when life hands you pleasant things and wonderful experiences. . . joy comes when you know and believe that God will meet all your needs no matter the circumstances you may find yourself in.
The main prerequisite to experiencing true joy is having your desires and values perfectly aligned with Christ. Scripture tells you to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), and everything else in life will get straightened out because of it. You’re also told that “those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” (Romans 8:5)
It’s this “alignment process” that may sometimes cause you to question your joy, or to feel that joy might be unreachable. After all, doing what Jesus wants means you can’t always do what you want. Having your will aligned with Jesus means you surrender your agenda to His agenda and choices. Learning to set your mind on what the Spirit desires can sometimes feel very foreign, so the alignment process can be a bit challenging, and cause you to wonder if getting joy or being joyful is worth the work involved.
In reality, this process of aligning your desires and values with Christ – and experiencing His intended results for you – is one of the things in life that actually produces joy.
Let me explain. For some, eating a made-from-scratch cake is one of the highest joys in life. Taking a bite of that warm, rich chocolaty goodness is the end-all-be-all of any “cake experience.” For others, the process of shopping for the groceries or the process of mixing the ingredients and doing all the bakery prep-work is the source of joy. Enjoying the cake is secondary to the process of baking. For the Christ-follower, getting aligned with Christ produces joy; and then being aligned produced more joy.
Jesus taught: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:10-11) Your joy will be complete and whole and mature when you learn to obey what He teaches you and when you remain intimately at home in His love. Jesus makes known to you the way you should live – and as you follow His commands you are filled with joy.
Some might define joy as a feeling, and rejoicing is what you do when you “feel” joy. I believe God’s Word teaches us something quite different. Paul writes: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) His words are a command – an expectation. In reality, instead of rejoicing being what you do because you feel joy, rejoicing is what you do in order to produce joy! It’s “being joyful on purpose.”
Your friendships, your work, your leisure time – even your troubles in life – are to be a cause for joy and for celebrating. Scripture shows that you’re to rejoice always – in all things – no matter what comes your way.
Joy is God’s desire for you. He wants you to learn to be joyful in all aspects of your life. Joy is not dependent on your circumstances. . . it comes when you know and believe that God will meet all of your needs no matter the circumstances of your life. As you work to get your will and your life in line with Jesus, His joy in you will be the outcome every time. . . and God-initiated, God-produced joy will truly make your life a celebration.
