Be Filled With Joy
A Christian's "inexpressible and glorious joy" (1 Peter 1:8) comes not from having stuff, but from having Jesus as Friend and Saviour, His Spirit within, and peace with God our Father through forgiveness of sin.
John 15:11
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him...
Psalm 5:11
Let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
Psalm 16:11 (KJV)
In thy presence is fullness of joy...
Psalm 119:1-3 (NLT)
Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.
Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.
They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths.
Psalm 146:5
Joyful is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.
Isaiah 12:2b-3
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and song, he has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Nehemiah 8:7-12 (ESV) After completion of the wall and at the start of Succoth
(Ezra, the Priests and Levites) helped the people to understand the Law…They read from the book, from the Law of God…and they gave the (meaning), so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Hebrews 1:9
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
Augustine, in Words Old and New: or, Gems From the Christian Authorship of All Ages, by Horatius Bonar
No one can be robbed of his delights whose joy is Christ. Eternal is his gladness who rejoices in an eternal good.
William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour
Christ takes no more delight to dwell in a sad uncheerful heart, than we in a dark melancholy house. Open thy (shutters) therefore, and let in the light which sheds its beams upon thee from the promise. We do not entertain our friends in a dark room, or sit by those that visit us, mopish and melancholic, lest they should think we are weary of their company. Christ brings such good news with him, as may bespeak better welcome with thee than a dejected countenance and a disconsolate spirit.
Blush then, and be ashamed, O ye drooping saints! that a few thin clouds of some short afflictions, coming over your heads, should so wrap you up in the darkness of your spirits, as that the hope of heaven, whither you look at last to come, should not be able, in a moment, to dispel and turn your sorrow into a ravishment of joy and comfort.
Thomas Charles Spiritual Counsels
Though (the Spirit) takes away all your outward comforts, and makes you as poor and as afflicted as Job, yet being within you, He can bring you effectual peace and comfort. Let Him make the cross ever so heavy, empty you from vessel to vessel, cause you to be destitute, afflicted, and tormented; still the Holy Spirit, being with you, can fill your hearts with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The world cannot give peace and joy without removing the cross and the affliction. Christ gives peace in the midst of trouble. The Spirit within us causes us to glory in tribulation, to rejoice under the cross, and to triumph even in death.
Richard Baxter A Christian Directory
It is folly to expect any stable peace or solid joy that does not come from Christ as the fountain. If everlasting joys were more in your thoughts, spiritual joys would abound more in your hearts.
C.H. Spurgeon Treasury of David on Psalm 19:8 "The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart..."
He who was converted was next made wise and is now made happy; that truth which makes the heart right then gives joy to the right heart. Free grace brings heart-joy.
Octavius Winslow
The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness. With such a God, such a Saviour, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man?
F.B. Meyer Our Daily Walk
We may alter our dispositions and moods by a resolute action of the will. We can refuse to look miserable, to speak mournfully, to be pessimistic, to pass on depression. In a spirit of unselfishness we can put on a cheerful courage, array ourselves in the garments of joy, anoint ourselves with the spirit of praise and thankfulness, and go forth into the world to shed sunbeams rather than shadows on the path of life. Do not nurse your sorrow of heart, lest your spirit and the spirits of others be broken.
A.B. Simpson
A sacrifice is that which costs us something. And when a man has some cherished grudge or wrong and is harboring it, nursing it, dwelling on it, and quite determined to enjoy a miserable time in selfish grumbling, it costs us no little sacrifice to throw off the morbid spell, to rise out of the mood of self-commiseration in wholesome and holy determination and say, "I will rejoice in the Lord" (Habakkuk 3:18).
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
The Christian is not superficial in any sense, but is fundamentally serious and fundamentally happy. You see, the joy of the Christian is a holy joy, the happiness of the Christian is a serious happiness. ... it is a solemn joy, it is a holy joy, it is a serious happiness; so that, though he is grave and sober-minded and serious, he is never cold and prohibitive.
A.W. Tozer
That Incredible Christian
If only we would stop lamenting and look up. God is here. Christ is risen. The Spirit has been poured out from on high. All this we know as theological truth. It remains for us to turn it into joyous spiritual experience.
The saints have always been serious, but gloominess is a defect of character and should never be equated with godliness. Religious melancholy may (be constitutional or) indicate the presence of unbelief or sin, and if long continued may lead to serious mental disturbance. Joy is a great therapeutic for the mind. "A joyful heart is a good medicine" (Proverbs 17:22).
A sweet but sobering memory of our past guilt and a knowledge of our present imperfections are not incompatible with the joy of the Lord; and they are of inestimable aid in resisting the enemy.
The Size of the Soul
Surely one of the happiest persons in the world should be the new convert. Has he not found Him of whom Moses and all the prophets did write? The spontaneous song that bursts from his lips is likely to be: "Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings; Through His blood I now am saved."
“Object of My First Desire” The Works of Augustus Toplady, 1794
http://books.google.com/books?id=1-VUAAAAcAAJ&dq
Object of my first desire,—
Jesus, crucified for me;—
All to happiness aspire,
Only to be found in Thee;
Thee to praise, and Thee to know,
Constitute our bliss below;
Thee to see, and Thee to love,
Constitute our bliss above.
Lord it is not life to live,
If Thy presence Thou deny;
Lord, if Thou Thy presence give,
'Tis no longer death — to die.
Source and Giver of repose,
Singly from Thy smile it flows;
Peace and happiness are Thine,
Mine they are, if Thou art mine.
While I feel Thy love to me,
Every object teems with joy;
Here, O may I walk with Thee,
Then into Thy presence die.
Let me but Thyself possess —
Total sum of happiness —
Real bliss I then shall prove,
Heaven below and heaven above.
"Enjoy" comes from the Anglo-French enjoir "to give joy to, take delight in"
We are to put joy into our life and circumstances
Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NLT)
Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
and the cattle barns are empty,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
To rejoice...is a choice.