June 29, 2011
14:31
The Fruit of the Spirit is Joy!
Joy will likely end up being the hardest thing I will have ever written about. I feel as though I know very little about joy; this may be a wonderful thing, and it may be terrible. Yet that I don’t know much about it doesn’t subtract from its importance.
One thing I do know is that we often confuse joy with happiness. This is a terrible calamity. As the past few centuries have progressed, the word “joy” has increasingly become synonymous to happiness. Originally, happiness referred to a state of financial well-being. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary lists an obsolete definition of happiness as being prosperous. Though this definition is obsolete, it resembles the modern definition, which is “a state of well-being”. The original definition of the word stated that money is the cause of happiness, and the only thing different about the modern definition is that the cause of happiness is left open. Implied is that anything on Earth can make someone happy.
It is dangerous to assume that joy and happiness are synonymous. Since the Bible explicitly states that the fruit of the Spirit is joy (Galatians 5:22), we should not be made to believe that joy can be found in things of the Earth. Rather, since joy is a fruit of the Spirit, joy can only be found in the Spirit. Therefore, joy and happiness cannot be synonymous because happiness is found in money and other things created by the world, whereas joy is found in the Creator of the world.
Happiness of the world seems to revolve around what has been referred to as the “American Dream”. It is the dream of the average American—and for that matter, every other first-world citizen—to acquire more “stuff”—more cars, new cars, a bigger house, the next college degree, the next promotion, a boat, a dog, and maybe even a couple of kids. The foundation of the American Dream is that the key to happiness is prosperity. The American Dream says that prosperous people are happy people.
When you really think about it, though, the American Dream in itself is pretty ironic. Look at how much good the American Dream is doing for America! Each passing day we’re getting further into debt! The American dream is to be rich, and America itself is trillions of dollars in debt.
Friends, it is plain to see that it is dangerous to seek happiness. Happiness is contentment with the world and its possessions, and with each addition to our happiness—with each new purchase to increase our contentment with the world—it only puts us further into debt. It may make us temporarily content, but this contentment surely won’t be permanent. It’s much like the concept of sin itself—it instantly makes you content for the time-being, then it turns on you and makes you feel bad for having ever associating with it. Joy, on the other hand, comes from the LORD. Anything that comes from the LORD has eternal implications because the LORD Himself is eternal.
Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church, once mentioned via Twitter the relationship between joy and repentance. As he pointed out, “the message of Jesus was joy-based repentance, not fear-based repentance.” I think this further emphasizes that joy must come from the Lord, because repentance comes through the Lord, and there is joy in repentance.
In Matthew 18:3-4, Jesus mentions that the Kingdom of God is for those who “turn and become like children.” I don’t think this verse is saying the Kingdom of God is for people who leave behind their maturity and exchange it for whininess and temper tantrums. Rather, I think Jesus is saying in this verse that the Kingdom of God is for those who have an ultimate dependency on their Father, and who feel very alone without Him. Thinking back to when I was a young child, I got scared when I was without my parents. I had such a strong dependency on my parents that I felt really bad without them. Yet when I was with them, I felt so content with my life. As a child, I never had to worry about paying the bills or preparing my next meal; my parents did that for me. They provided everything I needed. And this is what Jesus desires of us—to be entirely dependent on Him.
Going along with this, think of how a child spends his or her recreation time. The first thing that comes to my mind is a little girl spinning around imagining she’s dancing at the ball. It didn’t take much for her to show up at the ball; she just put her mind on it, and she was there. And think of how joyous she is to be there! For this child, it didn’t take much for her to have joy. She didn’t have to go out of her way to buy something to give her joy; a child can’t buy anything. Rather she realized that joy can’t be purchased.
This is why Jesus said to have faith like a child, because joy only comes from complete and utter dependence on Him.
Let’s consider a few other places in the Bible, where joy is expressly mentioned:
• Nehemiah 8:10 says, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” I like how this is worded: “the joy of the LORD”. It seems to be a clarification addressed to someone who might think joy comes from other places. Nay, I say, joy only comes from the LORD.
• Psalm 30:5 says, “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Toward the end of the Psalm, the writer expresses his emotions after the joy had come. He says in verse eleven, “You have turned my mourning into dancing.” In this passage, it is simply understood that joy comes from the LORD.
• At the beginning of His letter, James instructs us to “count it pure joy when you face trials of any kind, for the testing of your faith produces endurance.” You see, joy isn’t synonymous with happiness, rather joy is the sense one feels when in the presence of God. Being a follower of God doesn’t necessarily mean life will always be happy. Instead, being a follower of God means giving all that we endure, that is unpleasant—every trial, tribulation, danger, etc.—to God, so that He can bear the weight of it instead of us.
As I mentioned earlier, God desires a childlike faith from us, so that we will be totally dependent on Him. It is only then when we can truly experience joy.
The David Crowder*Band has a song which, in my experience, perfectly describes joy as it relates to our relationship to God. In their song “You Are My Joy”, they demonstrate how being in a place of worship is the key to being full of joy. I encourage you to listen to it, as they say more in those few minutes that I could have hoped to in these few pages. Sorry about that, but if I had told you that in the beginning, you wouldn’t have read this, would you? Anyway, here’s the link, so check it out!
