There was a song I used to sing in Sunday school that went something like this:
I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart,
Down in my heart,
Down in my heart,
Yes – I’ve got joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart,
Down in my heart today.
As mentioned above, I used to sing it in Sunday school, yet if the truth be known, I really didn’t know what joy was. I suppose I thought it was just another word for happiness. I now know better.
I’ve since learned that joy is an ingredient of the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22). I therefore now understand that JOY in the biblical sense can only be experienced by those who are born-again (i.e. who have committed their lives into God’s hands and accepted Jesus as their saviour and invited him to be their Lord).
Even so, I still didn’t have a full grasp of what JOY is, or what it looked like, other than I believed it was a higher, deeper expression of happiness.
Well, I recently came across a wonderful and insightful definition of this quality.
Bob and Debbie Gass, writers of UCB Word for Today shares the following:
- Happiness is external
- Joy is internal
- Happiness depends on outward circumstances
- Joy depends on inward character
- Happiness depends on what happens to us
- Joy depends on who lives within us
- Happiness is based on chance
- Joy is based on choice.
Now it is obvious to me that happiness is an unstable emotion because it fluctuates. The pursuit of joy is therefore a wiser move. Why? Because Jesus says that the joy he gives, is a joy that remains:
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
(John 15:11 NKJV)
As a woman of God, desirous of reigning in life through the power of Christ and aiming to walk each day as a victorious overcomer, I’m making a conscious decision to choose joy.
What do you choose?
CREDIT: CC0 image from Pixabay.com
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