Fruit of The Spirit Joy

JOY

Usually, we employ this word to communicate our intense satisfaction, our sense of well-being and our underlying contentment at having experienced something for which we have earnestly longed, something that we have deeply desired.

One of the most powerful of these practices and the one that may be most responsible for inhibiting the cultivation of Christian joy is the practice of advertising.

the significance of the etymological connection between the Greek word for "grace" (charis) and the New Testament word most commonly translated as "joy" (chara). Both words developed from the same root, and both imply the activity of freely taking delight in something or someone beyond one's self.

As Evelyn Underhill writes: "Real love always heals fear and neutralizes egotism, and so, as love grows up in us, we shall worry about ourselves less and less, and admire and delight in God and his other children more and more, and this is the secret of joy."2

This emphasis on the outward movement of joy is carried over into the New Testament, where healing and restoration of wholeness are an occasion sion for joy and praise.

For me, I define JOY in two ways…

1) Internal Joy: living with a high level of self-worth that is not based off circumstances. I’m not talking about being arrogant. Rather, having internal “confidence” in who I am, no matter what others say or do.

2) External Joy: offering help and hope to others.

But perhaps most significantly, joy is a defining characteristic of the life of God. The parables of Luke 15 remind us that God also rejoices when those who were lost are found. God has always longed for the reconciliation of all creation.

O Lord, far be it from me to think that whatever joy I feel makes me truly happy. For there is a joy that is not given to those who do not love you, but only to those who love you for your own sake. You yourself are their joy. Happiness is to rejoice in you and for you and because of you. This is true happiness and there is no other. Those who think that there is another kind of happiness look for joy elsewhere, but theirs is not true joy.3  St. Augustine

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. (Lk 6:22-23)

"My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you maybe mature and complete, lacking in nothing" (Jas 1:2-4).

advertising both plays on and helps create our contemporary confusions and anxieties about who we are and whether we have worth.

Furthermore, because we believe we are entitled to pursue happiness and because our culture defines happiness in terms ofwhatwe possess,we believe we are entitled to acquire and accumulate whatever possessions we believe will make us happy. The result, as many of us can well attest, is that our lives (not to mention our closets, garages and attics) are often cluttered with stuff that promised to bring us happiness but didnt and doesn't.

When we gather for worship, therefore,we are focusing our attention on that which is our chief end. Such gatherings should be marked by the joy that comes from doing what we were created to do.

The source of our joy as Christians is God and God's reconciling work. Even the Old Testament rings out with psalms of joy to the God who saves.

Rather, what is being aroused in many cases is a desire for desiring, a desire that makes contentment with who one is and what one has all but impossible.