Monday
Romans 15.13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
By trusting in the God of hope, we are filled with joy and peace and the overflow is hope. The word joy is in very good company – peace, trust, hope – and these are God’s gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joy is not about emotional excitement, but springs out of a life whose bedrock is the God of hope. This verse is about hope, where it comes from and what it does to our ways of being, within ourselves and as we serve God in our own times, during a recession of hope, peace and joy.
Tuesday
2 Corinthians 8.1-2 “Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
Now it’s the connection between joy and generosity. God’s grace never touches us without changing us. God’s generous grace generates gratitude, and thankfulness is fertile soil out of which grows our own joy in self-giving service. Paul always got those connections – grace and gratitude, gratefulness and generosity, generosity and the mutual joy of giver and given to. Note Paul’s astonishing contrasts – out of very severe trial and extreme poverty overflowing joy results in rich generosity!
Wednesday
Galatians 5.22 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
If I’m right that a word can often be interpreted by the company it keeps, this verse places joy in the cluster of fruitfulness that is Christian character. This is God’s doing, the fruit of the Spirit is the natural, organic outgrowth of life in Christ and Christ in us. Joy is a feature of Christ-likeness, the music and melody of a life composed and performed in obedience to God, by the grace of Christ, in the power of the Spirit.
Thursday
Philippians 1.3-6 “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul prays with joy because of all those who share fellowship with him in the work and worship of the Church. He is writing this to a church where joy isn’t all that evident in the rivalries, frictions and tensions of a community that needs to learn again the mind of Christ. Joy in fellowship is not automatic. It requires of us levels of humility and love that can’t co-exist with ambition, pride, and ‘thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.” Paul encourages this fractious and fractured community to have the mind of Christ, and learn the obedience of the cross. Joy is found, not in self-assertion, but in the fellowship of those who have the mind of the Servant King.
Friday
Philippians 2.1-2 “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
There is joy in the togetherness, shared focus, and common experience of the Spirit; not so much if we think we are God’s gift to the church, and everyone else should give us our place! Joy is linked to “considering others better than ourselves” and a balancing of interests between what we want and what others want in the life of the Church. That takes humility, love and “a sober judgement of ourselves”!
Saturday
1 Thessalonians 1.6 “You became imitators of us and of the Lord, in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.”
The decision to trust in Christ, and welcome and believe in the good news of God’s love revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ, resulted in the gift of joy. The Holy Spirit moves the heart, leads the mind to truth, and draws the person into a new relationship to God. Forgiven, reconciled, a new creation, the New Testament has many ways of describing the work of the Holy Spirit in our salvation. But even when that act of witnessing faith brings severe opposition, the Holy Spirit instils joy in the heart!
Sunday
Romans 14.17-18 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval".
There was strong disagreement in the Roman house churches about whether to eat meat that had been used in sacrifice in pagan temples. Paul is arguing that what matters is love and care for each other, and being prepared not to insist on our own rightness. The rightness that counts is being right with God, peace-making within the fellowship, and finding joy in each other by seeing the working of the Spirit in each of our lives. The kingdom of God, the rule of God in the community and in each believer’s life, is made real by doing right by each other, working at peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Joy, then, is one of the barcode signs that God is at work among us!
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