Happy, happy, joy, joy...
Last night at our life group, we discussed joy through adversity. We studied Phillipians 1,2, and 4. Even though we all learned the appropriateness and necessity for joy, and the difference between joy and happiness... yadda,yadda, etc.etc.... in the end, someone asked. "So what does joy look like?" And I don't think any of us came up with a very good definition. Is it hope, faith, perseverance, humility, endurance? What does joy look like? How does it manifest in your life? (grumble, grumble, mumble, mumble- I am thinking....) I just don't know. Anyone wanna give a shot at defining it? What is joy to you? Please do not define it as a situational thing, or as happiness, and such. When going through adversity, how do you experience joy?
posted by kika at 10:50 AM
4 Comments:
Hm, that is a good question about joy...
Why did you leave Philippians 3 out of the equation?
It is cold and sunshiny here today. Absolutely beautiful, but not to be handled without a sweater on!
I don't know why it was left out. Maybe I wasn't paying attention... we were broken up into 3 groups. Maybe the last group did 3 &4, and I only heard 4???
And yes, a sweater is called for. I dug out Chispita's sweater, too. She looks much happier, too. :)
My comment was getting rather long, so see my post.
Joy is what we experience in the presence of Jesus and the Father. In our daily lives, it is like the whisper of His presence, but a whisper more powerful than of human breath. Perhaps along those lines, it is the Spirit's call to us, to come and be in fellowship with the Father and Jesus. And it is a compelling call! Though I have resisted it in the past (foolishly). I feel it when He is calling me to fellowship in prayer, or anytime He wants to do a work. To the saved and unsaved, it comes as a longing, because we were meant to be in union with God, and though we lost that union at the Fall, it is still in the fibers of our being to want it. The union comes to us again through Christ and His indwelling Spirit, but we don't experience the fullness of joy daily because we do not walk with Him at every moment in obedience. When it is our own flesh, our wills calling the shots, the Spirit is pushed aside. But His stabs of joy are His way of calling us back to that union and oneness, and that union comes in humble submission and obedience to His will. The abandonment of our own will for the sake of His kingdom. And so, walking in fellowship through Him, we have joy regardless of earthly circumstances, because we faith in the unseen, eternal, lasting things of Christ. All of this will pass away, "but the one who does the will of God abides forever" (I John 3:17 I believe it is)
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