"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness," ~Galatians 5:22
As we enter now into our third week in our fruits of the Spirit series, we come to the fruit of the Spirit known as joy.
Because we live in a sin-cursed world, it can sometimes feel (especially in certain darker seasons of our lives!) impossible to have joy. How are we to be expected to have this fruit of the Spirit in our lives when life is hard and our world feels dark?
Well, that is where there are a couple of key things to remember here.
The first is that as we saw on week 1 of our study, not one of these fruits is cultivated or produced by us - they are fruits of *the Spirit*, and Paul shows us in Galatians 5:16 that the key to having the Spirit produce these fruits in our lives is us walking by the Spirit, daily being in relationship with Him through the Word, prayer, etc. No matter our circumstances, it truly can be well with our souls, and the Spirit can cultivate and produce in us a supernatural joy in spite of our circumstances, a joy that surpasses all human understanding.
The other thing to keep in mind is that there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness oftentimes is a circumstances-based feeling, a feeling that can be flaky and can come and go all too quickly based on what is happening in our lives. Joy, meanwhile, is a deep-seated peace, lightness, and positivity in our souls, in the core of who we are, because we know Who holds the future and our lives securely in His hands.
When we know that, we truly can have joy and, as Nehemiah said, that joy of the Lord can be our strength (see Nehemiah 8:10).
The Greek word translated in Galatians 5 as "joy" here is "chara" and refers to a calmness, a delight, a cheerfulness of soul. May that joy be yours today and every day, dear sister!
Reflection Questions:
1) How does this definition of joy perhaps differ from the definition you had previously?
2) How can you take joy even in the midst of hard seasons of life?
3) How has the Lord brought you joy in dark seasons? How can you encourage someone else with your story?
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