Fruit of the Spirit 2 Pressed Down and Overflowing with JOY!

Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Often, we find ourselves in situations where we end up saying, “I’m not happy! There is no JOY in my life.” We get confused between the two adjectives: Happy and Joy! As children, the 6 of us kids would go out to the river and spend our days wandering the woods, fording the river as we held to each other, picking wild blackberries, swimming in the lake and fishing where we could – we were living “happy”. Those days were not long in time, but for the short while, the circumstances allowing us to play made us happy! That is happiness. Surroundings, situations, circumstances, etc, created happiness.

JOY on the other hand is different in nature. It does not require a situation or circumstance to produce happiness. The first fruit of the Spirit is LOVE. LOVE is within us and LOVE is that deep, intense feeling within us that we act upon. When we are filled with LOVE, we then experience JOY! If you do not have LOVE within your being, JOY becomes a stranger.

Do you remember in Hebrews 12:2 when it said, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the JOY that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Christ knew He was going to be hung on an old rugged cross, it did not make Him happy, but knowing why He was headed to the cross for our sins to be forgiven, it filled Him with JOY! Who for the JOY …set before Him ENDURED the cross.

The Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:4 was a great example for us. Paul had had many hardships, jail time, shipwrecks, “and yet he said, “I always pray for JOY!” He could experience the JOY because he knew His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The LOVE that filled him produced a JOY that could be overflowing because of LOVE. Further down in verses 17 and 18 we read that it did not matter that Paul was in jail. He loved the Lord so much and though imprisoned, others were out preaching the Gospel because his testimony. This brought him JOY! A feeling of great pleasure and rejoicing!!

Does the LOVE you have within you produce a JOY which causes you to rejoice knowing your life is lived to draw others to Jesus? JOY = Jesus, Others, and You! Love Jesus, show Others the way and your life will be filled, pressed down and running over with JOY!!