What Is Joy?

What is Joy?

JOY, of course, is an emotion. Joy is feeling delight, happy, bliss and elation. Yet, as an emotion, it is difficult to define, own and keep. Emotions are very personal. We feel different degrees of emotions. Discovering joy, then, can see to be similar to capturing the sunshine. Where is it when you go inside or the storms are raging? But let’s look to the following illustration as an understanding of joy as I believe Jesus defines it. 

A young lady writes: “If I place my joy in my job, what do I do when circumstances cause a bad day at work? If I place my joy in my husband, what happens on the days he’s not exactly the person I need him to be? If I place my joy in buying more things, what happens when those things become useless? If I place my joy in a quiet and secure mind, what do I do when I worry about my job, my husband and my things?

     “The problem with attaching my joy to the circumstances, people and things in my life is that when any one of them doesn’t ‘measure up’ – and there’s always something, isn’t there? – I had none of the joy I expected to experience. ‘Where’s the joy in life I so desperately long for, the joy all the world has promised me?’ I asked.

     “One day, though, I discovered a truth about joy that is quite remarkable. I found that in my life, there is only one way to know true joy. What is this joy truth? I discovered I needed to stop placing my joy expectations in finding happiness, delight or bliss through those fluctuating circumstances, people and things in my life. I found I needed to instead establish my joy in God, the Father, Son and Spirit. 

     “Yes, I had piled up many arguments against such a thought. For instance, ‘Certainly God doesn’t have time to care how I feel.’ I was sure, ‘God isn’t concerned with my little troubles.’ I knew, ‘Jesus is only for those really, really hard days when something terrible has happened.’ I was confident, ‘The Holy Spirit surely isn’t necessary for my ordinary life.’

     “But amid those doubts, amid the days of reading the Bible and not being sure why I was reading it, the Holy Spirit began to move into my ordinary life. I began to live differently. I started to set my mind to intentionally get to know God more intimately. I became purposeful to discover if He, in all He is and all He has said, truly is real for me every single day, every single moment of my life.

     “Do you know what? As I began to mind my mind to focus on who God is, my life changed. My life changed because I began to link my mind with the promises and blessings of God displayed in the Holy Bible. More and more I learned of God’s magnificent love. I anchored my mind to truly believe I could live every day in a faithful pursuit of true joy – a deep emotional sense of well-being built on

Joy – a deep emotional sense of well-being built on my salvation in Jesus Christ.

 my salvation in Jesus Christ. Faithfully I began to know that regardless of what happens each day, I am securely linked to the eternal promises of the God who doesn’t change.”

     Indeed, as we all have discovered, true joy and certainly an overflowing joy is not possible if we link joy with worldly happiness, delight, bliss, elation and pleasure. A few years ago I wrote occasional emails to a group of pastors. Those notes often began with, “I pray all is well.” One pastor responded, “Is there ever a time when all is well?” I was taken aback by his comment. “He’s a pastor. Doesn’t he know “all is well” is based on Jesus’ saving power? Does he understand that all is well in Jesus?” I wondered. But the world of pastors and all of us is filled with joy-killing problems. It’s easy to take our eyes off our Lord when the world presses against us. And if we do get to that “joy place” it seems to be only overnight lodging as we quickly move on to pursue joy in the elusive “next place”.

     For example, joy will certainly come when you’ve reached 16, and you can drive. You will definitely find bliss when you have that one big house. Surely happiness and delight will be yours when you are married, have 2 kids, a dog and a good car. Joy will ever be yours when the kids go off to college and come home with a degree and awesome jobs!

     But we know these things are temporary if they happen at all. The drivers’ license often means a tedious job to pay for the insurance. The big house requires a big confining mortgage. A family is always in flux. The kids change

    

What is joy? Joy is grounded and established in Jesus. Joy is the deep emotion of well-being, knowing all is well in Jesus. Regardless of what happens in the world, we know our Lord has us for eternity.

 

colleges and jobs while we turn around. We wonder why our lives always seem to be missing the joy so easily promised in the pursuit of MORE while all we find is more discontent.

     I spent a summer preaching on joy, forming the text you are about to read. I’m certain only a very few of the church at best came to understand what it means to be linked to Jesus’ overflowing joy. Please understand I say this with no critical voice toward the good people of the church. Instead, I say this with a sense of sadness because most of Jesus’ universal church has listened too much to the temporary and dying philosophies of the world and too little to the eternal Living Word. We simply do not know how to become close with our God because we do not know God. We see God as “out there” not “in here” as He has promised to be “with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b). Our daily lives keep Jesus knocking at the door of our hearts while we’re locked up tight. We are busy seeking our own way to bliss when it is He that we miss. Not knowing Jesus, we cannot personally know how much Jesus loves us. We cannot know how much our Lord desires our lives are joyfully linked with Him daily and forever until we truly know His own overflowing joy. I pray this book will help you know Jesus, so you will come to that same place as in our illustration – to know you will find joy when you are securely linked to the God who doesn’t change.