Joy

This simple three-letter word is not as simple as it looks or sounds. However, after some reading and searching on the Scripture, there are some simple facts that we can obtain.

I am not an expert in the subject of joy. You can buy or read in the internet, thousand of articles written by both professional as well as novice about this subject. There are books like the 10 keys to large amount of happiness and joy. There is web site that dedicated to this subject. Even in Christian web side or Christian book store, you can find title such as "the secret of Christian joy" or 10 steps to joy. But there are few things that I can share with you today. These are No. 1. Jesus promised us joy. No. 2 We ought to display joy because it is a manifestation of God’s love to us. Thirdly Real joy is not base on circumstance. Fourththly, Joy is one indicator of our relationship with God and that any hindrances must be eradicated. And Finally, we have to choose joy.

1. Jesus promised fullness of joy
Let us look into the bible where it speak about promised joy from God.

Luke 2: 10Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
God promised us His son and that whosoever believe in Him will have everlasting life. This is to say that salvation and joy come together. In Isaiah 12:3, we read "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." And in Luke 10:20, we read that "rejoice that our name is written in heaven."

John 14: 11"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. (Our joy is in relationship to his joy.)
It is a promise that the joy will remain in us and the Lord did not promise half joy but fullness of joy. And the beauty of this that in John 16:22, it says that no one can take away this joy.
John 16: 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy

2. Joy is the manifestation of God's love
Ironically, we see that church going people probably display the most grumpy face. In fact the, if you read the history of the church, there is one very interesting episode. As Julian saw it, Christianity took the vividness out of life.
Even after Constantine had made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, there came to the throne another Emperor called Julian, who wished to put the clock back and to bring back the old gods. His complaint, as Ibsen puts it, was: "Have you looked at these Christians closely? Hollow-eyed, pale-checked, flat-breasted all; they brood their lives away, unspurred by ambition: the sun shines for them, but they do not see it: the earth offers them its fullness, but they desire it not; all their desire is to renounce and to suffer that they may come to die."
Oliver Holmes, the Supreme judge of the USA was once asked what other profession will he take up if he isn’t a judge. This is what he said: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I know had not looked and acted much like undertaker."
In fact, we should be joyful as Peter said:
1st Peter Verse 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
John15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

3. Real joy is not based on circumstances.
As Jesus was preparing his disciples for his death and his departure from earth, he taught about joy.
John 16:22,33
So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
33"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John16:22,33. Jesus did not promise us that it will be smooth sailing. In fact he says that in this world we will trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. He is telling us to have confidence in Him.
We have to understand there is a difference between the word happiness and joy.
The USA constitution include many rights and one of them is the right to pursue happiness. The problem is that happiness depends on happenings. In other words, "I am happy today" because some things just happened to turn out right. Happiness is linked to our situation. Joy on the other hand is different. It is deeper than that, Joy is an attitude, Joy is a choice. Joy is something that is not depending on circumstances. And Joy is also something which God expects of His people.
James1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
Examples in scripture:
-Famine (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD , I will be joyful in God my Savior.
-Imprisonment (Ac 16:22-25)
22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
-Poverty (2 Co 6:10)
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
-Loss of property (Heb 10:34)
34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
-Persecution (Act 5:41)
41The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.
And so then you start to realize that if God expects joy, then joy is not something that just happens, like happiness, but joy is something which we can have because God wants us to have it. And He even teaches us in His Word that it is a fruit of the Spirit, and so that the bottom line is that we are to be people of joy.
When the Spirit of God takes control of our lives, we can experience joy even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Joy is the inner celebration that comes from knowing God is sufficient for your every need.


4. Joy is a measuring tool that gauge our relationship with God
We see there is a relationship between Jesus’ joy and that of his disciples. Jesus indicates that he wants his joy to remain in his followers and if that happens their joy will be full. Second, we see that Jesus wants his followers to have a joy that is impossible for others to take away. This means this is regardless of any circumstances and even during time of trials.
While we know for sure that w will not lose our salvation. Make no mistake that we can relinquish the joy. I.e we can feel joyless. We can choose prison of feelings and emotions over joy of the Lord. Experiencing in sadness, disappointment, anger and all range of human emotions is inevitable, but to languish in them is our choice. And if we know that Christians has the joy of God and ought to show it. Therefore when we as Christian do not feel the joy anymore then we need to ask ourselves, why? And then take action.
We cannot have real joy without first realize that the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh 8:10).
If our life is producing only a whine. Instead of wine. It is a crime for Christians to be weak in God’s Strength.
1 John 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.
John is telling us here that our fellowship is with father and the son and that the joy is complete. What cause the joy to become incomplete that affect our fellowship? Could it be sin? Care of the world? Is our faith begin to wane? Could we be hiding or possess some resenting Spirit? Unforgiving? Or even burn out?
Adam & Eve
Gen3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
David is a man after God’s own heart. He enjoyed the presence of the Lord and God blessed him (1 Sam 13:14) However, we know that David was very unhappy when he wrote Psalm 51. He has lost all the joy because of his sin. He was out of fellowship with God. He has to ask God to restore His joy by confess his sin.
We have to keep up with our faith and not let our faith wane and got into sin.

5. Choose Joy
Someone sent me an email not too long ago. It is about 2 boxes. I am quite sure some of you would have received this too. Let me read it out to you.

I have in my hands two boxes,Which God gave me to hold.He said, "Put all your sorrows in the black box,And all your joys in the gold."I heeded His words, and in the two boxes,Both my joys and sorrows I stored,But though the gold became heavier each day,The black was as light as before.With curiosity, I opened the black,I wanted to find out why,And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole,Which my sorrows had fallen out by.I showed the hole to God, and mused,"I wonder where my sorrows could be!"He smiled a gentle smile and said,"My child, they're all here with me."I asked God, why He gave me the boxes,Why the gold and the black with the hole?"My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings,The black is for you to let go."

Yes, we have to constantly look out for God’s blessing. Constantly look out for joy. For the more we have the more we will be able to generate. Unless we realise it we will be depress and the more depress we are, we will slip, we will be discourage and at the end lost the joy that we used to have. Let me share with you 2 examples.
When my father passed away on 31/12/04. We have to carry his body back to Lawas. So we use the service of Fook Look Siew to transport the body back. I was telling the people that no problem, put his body in the coffiin and I will drive my car and lead the way. But I was told that I must accompany him in the van. So I arranged for my cousin to drive my car and my youngest sister sat with me inside the van which carry the body back to Lawas, Now, this is what I was told and to some of you, you may know this. I have to guide my father back home. That is on the way whenever we cross the bridge, I have to tell him that we are crossing the bridge. Or going up or down the hill. Somehow this crossing of bridge is very important. So throughout the journey, we were looking for bridge and whenever we cross the bridge, my sister or myself will say something like "Pa, we are crossing the bridge now". I have travel back to Lawas for so many many times. But you know what? I never realize there are so many bridges. Some are more obvious while some are not. Anyway, on the way back,. While driving, I made a conscious bridge count and to my surprise there are more than 30, 33 to be exact of bridges. This goes to show that unless we make a conscious look out to joy and blessings, there will be many that passed us by that we do not even realized.
The next example I want to share is about pregnant woman. More than 10 years ago when my wife was preganant. Every time I accompanied her shopping in the mall, I found out that there are many pregnant ladies too. Today, I am sure there are as many, if not more pregnant women wandering in the mall but I don’t see them. You see, if you are surrounded by a pregnant lady, you are make consious of it and suddenly you start to notice those around you. So is the case with joy. If we surround ourselves with all the joyful people, we will notice all the joy that radiates and surround us. We in tuen become more cheerful and joyful.
The moral of the stories is that if you want more joy, fill yourself with more joy and surround yourself with joyful people then your joy will multiply. So in conclusion. 1 God promised us joy and you can get the joy from the Lord Jesus. Watch out for the joyless life and have a good fellowship with our Lord. To have more joy, have more of Jesus and the more you have Him, you will experience more joy and with more joy, you would want more of Him. This will create endless joy. It is like a cycle.