Woohoo!  The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle is available as of today!  It contains a plethora of great resources, as always.  In particular, with regard to today’s topic, check out The Steady Mom’s Freedom Guide: Joyful Motherhood on Your Own Terms and Clutterfree: Declutter Your Home to Create Space for Joy.

J for Joy

Today we’re talking about joy.

Joy is fairly simple, but also often elusive.  It doesn’t help that many modern definitions are…lacking.  Ask Google to define joy and it returns this definition:

a feeling of great pleasure and happiness

I don’t know about you, but that seems to me to be pushing it when we’re talking about joy in tribulations!  Given that joy is easy when life is easy, I want to know how to find joy when life if hard, and that definition isn’t helping.  If we go back a bit, to a time when there was less of a cultural emphasis on comfort and personal happiness, we find a more balanced (in my opinion) definition in the 1828 version of Webster’s.

The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; that excitement of pleasurable feelings which is caused by success, good fortune, the gratification of desire or some good possessed, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exultation; exhilaration of spirits.

(There are additional entries that more closely mirror the modern one, but this broadly covers them all.)  “The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good.”  Now that I can reconcile with the biblical injunctions to by joyful in all circumstances.  It sounds a lot less trite!

How to Grow in Joy

I’m not going to lie; this is something I struggle with.  It’s easy to be joyful when things are going smoothly.  It’s harder to be joyful when life is painful.  One of my personally most-convicting and -instructive moments with regard to joy is described in this old post.  I haven’t “arrived”; I need this reminder repeatedly, but it’s a good place to start.

So…

1. Walk in the Spirit, so that you might bear the fruit of the Spirit.

The Bible even refers to “the joy of the Lord.”  It’s His, not “ours”!

Notice, too, that the definition above called joy the passion/emotion “excited by the acquisition or expectation of good.”

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” -James 1:2-3

If you read carefully, you’ll notice that this doesn’t exactly say that we must take joy in the trials themselves, but in the expected beneficial outcome of those trials.  “Expected good.”

We see even Jesus exemplifying the same.

“…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” -Heb. 12:2

It doesn’t say He took joy in the cross, per se.  He endured the cross — but for the sake of the promised outcome (our redemption!).

So if we want to be joyful in tribulation, we have to take our focus off of the momentary, and place it on the eternal.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” -2 Cor. 4:17

2. Focus on the eternal (promised good), not the temporary (suffering).

It’s perfectly acceptable to take joy in temporary pleasures (assuming the pleasures themselves are not sinful things), but when life gets hard we have to look beyond the temporary and focus on the eternal.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” -Rom 8:28

If you want to dig in further, here’s a selection of verses that offer insight into joy.  Notice as you read, the pattern of “expected good.”

Job 20:5
Ps 5:11
Ps 16:11
Ps 21:1
Ps 27:6
Ps 30:5
Ps 51:12
Ps 126:5
Pr. 17:21
Pr. 23:24
Is. 9:17
Is. 12:3
Is. 29:19
Is. 35:10
Hab. 3:18
Lk. 15:10
Jn. 15:11
Jn. 16:22
Acts 13:52
Rom. 5:11
Rom. 14:17
Rom. 15:13
2 Cor. 2:3
Gal. 5:22
Ph’p. 2:18
Heb. 13:17
1 Pe.1:8
1 Jn. 1:4
Jude 1:24

Do you have a favorite verse or quote about joy, or an insight to share?  Leave a comment!