Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Have you ever met someone who laughed all the time and seemed to be almost too happy? You may have wondered, “Is that real joy, or are they faking it?” In Galatians 5:22-23, Joy, is listed as a part of the fruit of the Spirit.
Fruit grows on a tree or vine. An apple tree produces apples. The Bible says God’s Spirit in the life of a person produces fruit, Joy, being a part of that. To better understand real joy, let’s think about what Joy isn’t. What is the extreme opposite of Joy? You may say Sadness. But it’s more than that. I’m looking at the evil alternative to Joy and that is Extreme Anger or Rage. The complete absence of Joy.
Again, most people live somewhere in the middle of these 2. We try for Ultimate Joy, but other things slip in. I hesitated to even put sadness on this scale because I think you can feel sad about a situation and still have Joy inside. But I am including it because there is a sadness that people dwell on and make it a part of their lives refusing to let joy come in.
Other attitudes that are in the middle of the scale might be Irritation with Others, Irritation with our lot in life, Sarcasm, Grouchiness. We are so good at accepting these things in our lives as Christians. We might call them righteous indignation or we accuse other people of robbing us of our joy. What truly comes from God’s Spirit cannot be taken away by another person. I heard someone say that anger is a result of unmet expectations. If we find ourselves on the angry side of this scale, then maybe we need to think about what expectations we have and whether those are healthy and realistic.
Are we actually angry with God because we feel that He has not given us what we deserve? To move toward Joy then perhaps the answer is to find out what God wants and not what we want. To let God be in charge is going to lead us toward Joy in our lives and allow us to display that real Joy to others.
As we head into the Thanksgiving Holiday it is a privilege to bring to you this opportunity for self-reflection. This series of devotions are written by Harriet Bowman and allow for us to consider the work of God’s Spirit in our lives.
