"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."~Galatians 5:22-23
Joy: Happiness, an emotion.
Today we are exploring the fruit of the spirit, Joy. We should not only love others and God deeply, but have joy. What does this mean? This one is a tough one for me. Don't get me wrong, I am a happy /joyful person most times! But, it's the finding joy in trials that is perplexing. Will it be just a natural side effect of walking hand in hand through this life with Jesus? Is joy just something that will come forth from us easily, or do we at times have to choose joy even when we don't feel like it?
I think it's a mix of both. I do think that as we have Christ living in us and we follow the Holy Spirit's leading through our life, there will be times when we are even amazed that we "feel" joy in a situation that otherwise we would not feel joyful about. As we grow in our relationship and maturity of faith, we will have joy in tough times. Or be joyful more often then we used to be. Joy means, happy. It is an emotion. So, it's not always a negative thing to be emotional and have feelings! Faith and feelings do go together because Joy is a feeling. It's happiness.
However, there may also be times when we don't "feel" joyful but, we choose to deal with the situation in Joy, happiness. We choose to be happy despite whats going on. Now, some issues in life, this would take time and not be instant. But in time, God will help us have His joy even in the darkest of circumstances. James talks about choosing joy or considering it to be joy....
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."~ James 1:2-4
Consider trials JOY?? This has always been an amazing concept to me. Sure, it's easy to be joyful when life is going well. But, James is challenging us to consider it PURE JOY/Happiness when we face job loss, a loved one dies, we face losing a home, face hunger, have issues with family and friends, face an illness.....we are to consider it pure joy. How? Why?
I don't think James is saying we should be happy WHEN these things strike us, we are going to feel normal human emotions of sadness, despair, fear, worry...but I do think he encourages us to think differently of our situation. Maybe not just see what happened or is in front of us.He tells us to rethink the situation because the testing of our faith produces perseverance. And if we let that complete then we will mature and not lack anything. So, though at the time something is really hard ....and we may not FEEL joy....we can choose joy or at least consider it a good thing because as we persevere through it...in the end we are going to come out more mature and complete in our faith, we will be better off in the end. WoW!
So, choose joy as you go through life. And be amazed at the change in you as you walk closer in love and obedience to the Lord. Thank Him each time you realize "Wow, I am much more joyful then I used to be" or" I can't believe I'm handling this situation so well" Thank Jesus for that gift. It's his likeness developing in you!!
Have a JOY FILLED day friends!
~In Christ~
M & M
No comments:
Post a Comment