Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, one of the most precious fruits that a healthy spiritual tree bears. The world knows nothing of the real joy that true Christianity holds within it. The soul that has learned to live in the presence of the Lord has joy in abundance. “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
David had an intimate relationship with God, enabling him to consciously place himself in God’s presence and experience the fullness of joy. Even today, the fullness of joy is found in the presence of the Lord. In Psalm 84, the psalmist says that one day in the courts of the Lord is better than a thousand elsewhere. The joys of this world cannot be compared to the joy of salvation. The world, with all its joys and pleasures, will pass away, but the joy of salvation endures forever.
When David once sinned against the Lord, he lost this joy, and we hear him praying and pleading for its return. “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit,” he prays in Psalm 51:12.
Oh, how many people in our day know nothing of the joy of salvation. They have a form of religion, but it does not satisfy the deepest needs of their hearts, nor can it give them lasting joy. When they hear true believers speak of the joy the Lord has given them, they find it difficult to understand. They cannot imagine how someone could be genuinely joyful without finding pleasure in the temporary entertainments and passing attractions of this world.
However, the Lord’s redeemed possess true and lasting joy. Through the new birth, we have become citizens of the Kingdom of God. Through spiritual birth, we enter God’s Kingdom, and this Kingdom is “not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Whoever has entered the Kingdom of God also has the realities of that Kingdom within their heart. “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).
Why should not the hearts of those who have been redeemed from their sins by the blood of the Lamb be full of joy? Jesus says that we have reason to rejoice, if only because we know that our names are written in heaven. The certainty that we are at peace with God, that heaven is open to us, brings joy to the soul that was once burdened by sin and guilt, under condemnation, and often plagued by fear and doubt.
Joy in the Lord is a fruit of the Spirit—a joy deep within the soul that remains no matter how much the outside world may try to crush it. As long as the redeemed person seeks to do God’s will according to the light and understanding they have received, they possess joy in the Lord. External circumstances cannot rob them of this joy.
Yet many who have once tasted the gracious word of God and the powers of the age to come become spiritually sluggish. They neglect private prayer and the nourishment of their spiritual life. They speak more than is beneficial for the soul’s well-being, become overly occupied with the things of this world, and forget the apostle’s admonition to “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). They fail to share with others the blessings with which the Lord has blessed them, or they do—or fail to do—something else that robs the soul of its joy.
Therefore, all the redeemed must be diligent to abide in the will of God so that the joy in the Lord may always be their strength. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
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