Joy

Joy is a pleasurable feeling very similar to happiness, delight, peace, etc. Most people love to be joyous. Some people do not have as much joy as they would like to have. It is your privilege to be full of joy. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”* (Romans 15:13) “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”* (John 15:11) It is your privilege to have “all joy”* (James 1:2) and to be “full of joy.”* (Acts 2:28) The apostle says, “Rejoice in the Lord alway.”* (Philippians 4:4) It is your privilege to rejoice constantly.

Some people say that they had great joy when they were first saved ten years ago, but that they have had so many trials since and met with so many disappointments that they have lost their joy. It is true that when people are newly born again and are baptized by the Holy Spirit, they are full of joy. The prophet, in describing this, says: “The ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”* (Isaiah 35:10) We can illustrate this by taking two cups and calling one the cup of sorrow and the other the cup of joy. The sinner has no joy in his cup (“There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked”* (Isaiah 57:21)), while his cup of sorrow is full. When he comes to Christ, he finds rest; his cup of sorrow is taken away and his cup of joy is full to the brim and ofttimes to overflowing. Now, if all along the Christian way he does what the Bible says, he will always keep the cup of sorrow empty and the cup of joy full. None need to expect to prosper in the divine life if they are hearers of the word and not doers. If you will be a doer of God’s word, you can keep your cup of joy full. Listen to the word: “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.”* (James 1:2) Please notice the little word all. It is “all joy.” If you will count your trials all joy, and nothing but joy, the cup of sorrow will always remain empty and your cup of joy will be full. Praise the Lord!

Some people are not sensitive enough to experience any great joy. They are too dull in their souls. Blessings are falling all around them and upon them, and yet they experience no joy. Alas! too dull. Such a soul needs to be quickened and made sensitive by the Holy Spirit. Astronomers, I am told, have a sensitive plate arranged at the focused end of their huge telescope. To this plate is attached a small bell. The rays of light from a passing star focused upon this sensitive plate set the bell to ringing. So our hearts can be made so sensitive by the Spirit of God that a ray of light from his word or a beam from His countenance will set the joy bells ringing in our souls.