The fruit of the Spirit is joy.
OCTOBER 4, 2007 (THURSDAY) – The fruit of the Spirit is Joy.
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Somebody saw the word, “joy,” and noticed that the word itself offers a formula for experiencing this fruit of the Spirit:
Jesus First
Others Next
Yourself Last
The opposite of the formula, “yoj” is impossible to speak, and represents not only a word spelled backward, but a life lived backward, with no joy. “Yourself first” is always a formula for disaster. Always.
Jesus spoke the words, “My joy,” and those words are recorded in John 15:11. What was he talking about? Look at the context and the answer will be clear: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Jesus’ joy – the joy that He experienced Himself – was the happiness he felt as He accomplished the will of His Father. There was no higher joy for Him than to do what the Father sent Him into this world to do. And what was that? To defeat sin by giving Himself for us on the cross and to defeat death by His resurrection.
If our joy is to be complete in Christ, then it will come to us in the same way it came to Him: through knowing Him, loving Him, and obeying Him by following His example of self-giving for others. We will not find our joy in Christ through self-centered, selfish living. We will receive joy when we earnestly desire joy for others and work to accomplish that end.
The plaintiff cry, “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,” was uttered by King David when he had voluntarily relinquished that joy by sinning against God. Make no mistake: sin never brings joy; it brings sadness sooner or later. Loving the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and loving others is the key to happiness and joy.
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