Joy in Christ
Joy. It's an aspect of Christian life whose importance can easily be overlooked by a believer when they're assessing their walk with God. It doesn’t mean joy in the sense of looking happy or acting outrageously in some way; It refers to your response to God's work in Christ for you.
This response will express itself differently in different people and different situations, but is characterized by an underlying happiness and thankfulness in the knowledge of the Kingdom to which you belong. (Rom. 8:28-30). There's no doubt that we have a lot to be joyful about!
The Bible is quite clear on the issue of joy: "Rejoice always" (1 Thess. 5:16); "Rejoice in hope" (Rom. 12:12); "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." (Php. 4:4) This rejoicing is the response to the knowledge and belief that God eternally provides and sustains. Galatians tells us that joy is a fruit of the Spirit (5:22-23), and elsewhere we learn that joy is the expected response both when considering the hope of eternity that we have (Lk. 6:23), and even as we face afflictions and persecutions (Jas. 1:2 cf. 1 Pet. 4:13).
Further, "Loving our neighbor" surely includes loving, supporting and encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ, and telling non-believers of God's love for them. But we must realize that it's hard to support our brothers and sisters if we can't convincingly, through the joyful impact of the love of Christ in our own lives, offer the hope of Christ and the love of God as a source of encouragement to them. And for that matter, how can we show non-believers their need to change as a response to the gospel if we ourselves are not responding to it day by day?
Finally, consider Jesus' response to the question "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Our Savior stated, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent" (John 6:28-29). It impacted us greatly to realize that failing to receive Christ with joy, is in a way, rejecting Him. Receiving Christ without joy must be an indication that we do not fully believe what He has done for us, because what He has done is so immense that joy should be an inevitable result. This understanding moved us deeply, as we know that we've been lacking joy in Christ for a great deal of our Christian life.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13)
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