Let's move to the next fruit: Joy. Here are some texts from the holy Bible describing joy:
John 15:8-11 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
Psalm 4:7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
Nehemiah 8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Isaiah 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
We are most familiar with these expressions of joy: The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:4-7), The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10), The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-24). Happiness is not their condition. JOY is! Jubilant rejoicing! "Joy, not discontent and mourning." I am fearful many see Christians as discontent and mourning! Here is a little sampling of what some say of certain joyless Christians:
The joyless Christian reveals himself by having negative thoughts and talk about others, in a lack of concern for others welfare, and a failure to intercede on others behalf. Joyless believers are self-centered, selfish, proud, and often vengeful and their self-centeredness inevitably manifests itself in prayerlessness. -John MacArthur
The Christian is a [person] of joy... A gloomy Christian is a contradiction of terms, and nothing in all religious history has done Christianity more harm than its connection with black clothes and long faces. -William Barclay
The best Christian has not always a joyous day. Our sins make sorrows needful – our lack of watchfulness may bring disquietude and doubt, and, instead of “rejoicing in the Lord,” our hearts may be filled with despondency and gloom. Christian! if you have not this joy “abiding” in you now, you have cause for alarm; for, be assured, it is suspended, not from any lack of love on the part of your Savior, nor from any forgetfulness of you by the Holy Spirit, but, because you yourself have become less watchful, in guarding the citadel of the heart. -John MacDuff
When the heart is full of joy, it always allows its joy to escape. It is like the fountain in the marketplace; whenever it is full it runs away in streams, and so soon as it ceases to overflow, you may be quite sure that it has ceased to be full. The only full heart is the overflowing heart. -C.H. Spurgeon
A pivotal Christian thinker of our time once said, “Joy is the surest sign of the presence of God... The bottom line for you and me is simply this: grimness is not a Christian virtue. There are no sad saints. If God really is the center of one's life and being, joy is inevitable. If we have no joy, we have missed the heart of the Good News and our bodies as much as our souls will suffer the consequences.”
An unthankful and complaining spirit is an abiding sin against God, and a cause of almost continual unhappiness; and yet how common such a spirit is. How prone we seem to be to forget the good that life knows, and remember and brood over its evil – to forget its joys, and think only of its sorrows – to forget thankfulness, and remember only to complain. -John Broadus
If Christians do not rejoice, it is not because they are Christians, but because they are not Christian enough. Joy is the rational state of the Christian in view of his spiritual position in Christ. -Derek Prime and Alistair Begg
You must be made miserable before you can know true Christian joy. Indeed the real trouble with the miserable Christian is that he has never been truly made miserable because of conviction of sin. He has by-passed the essential preliminary to joy, he has been assuming something that he has no right to assume. -Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Any comments? What is the single most important thing in our lives that should cause us the greatest joy known to humans?