Full Of Joy
Philippians 4:4 –
‘Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!’
This week we’re going to unpack the theme of joy. Woo hoo!
Joy is a big deal in the Bible. From God’s joy in his creation in Genesis, to the promised joy of a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation, it’s a key theme that runs throughout Scripture. Some fun facts for you: there are 15 Hebrew words for joy, 8 Greek words and joy appears in over 170 verses. The Bible is a big old joy-fest!
And yet it’s also very much not a joy-fest. The Bible is full of stories of pain, disappointment and loss. And when we look at the world around us, it also doesn’t feel like much of a joy-fest at the moment.
So maybe you’re reading this thinking “I don’t want to read five days of reflections on the theme of joy because actually my life really isn’t great at the moment.” I get you. Over the next four days we’ll look at four examples of joy in the Bible but let me promise, it’s not going to be happy-clappy, choose happiness and all that jazz.
Because here’s the thing - Biblical faith offers us a unique perspective on joy.
Joy, for us as God’s people, is an attitude we adopt. And it isn’t dependent on our circumstances, it comes from our hope in God’s love and faithfulness. It’s this attitude that enabled Paul to say ‘always be full of joy in the Lord’ even when he was persecuted, lonely, unhappy and stuck in prison.
As Henri Nouwen puts it, “We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.”*
So today I challenge you despite what might be going on, to choose to rejoice, not because of what’s going on in your life, but because of God and who he is.
Prayer – God, thank you that you are our refuge and our strength. Thank you that you are our source of hope and joy. Holy Spirit, come now and fill us with that joy. Help us to choose joy today, despite all that is going on in our lives.
*‘Here and Now’ by Henri J M Nouwen (1994)*