Fruit: Joy

Galatians 5:22, Psalm 19:8, and Luke 10:20b-21

Galatians 5:22 (NIV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,..
Psalm 19:7-8(NIV)
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
Luke 10:20-21(NIV)
“…but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

Suggested Reading:
05/21
Nehemiah 8:9-13
John 15:10-12

05/22
Psalm 19:7-9
John 16:23-25


When I first thought about finding passages having to do with God being joyful nothing came to my mind immediately. Thankfully my brain finally kicked in and using my wonderful Bible verse search engine on Biblegateway I soon had nine pages of filled with verses having to do with joy. After perusing the nine pages I was able to find specific passages to use for the devotional today.
As I also considered joy, the exact meaning of it to be precise, I decided to look up definitions to see exactly what it means. The most common definition in all of the dictionaries I looked through was
“To take great pleasure in.”
What immediately came to my mind as I mulled over these definitions is that we are God's workmanship, God created us and even though we continually reject Him He still takes great joy in us.
But what else gives God joy? Do we even know what could give an omnipotent Creator and righteous Judge pleasure? How could we know? Drum roll please..... (I'm sure some of you have already figured it out)... the Bible! God has given us a wonderful resource so that we can continually discover and be reminded of Him and His holiness. God mentioned what gives Him joy not only in the New Testament but also in the Old Testament so that, ladies, is where we will begin.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.

This voice doesn't seem to fit in to God's joy but lets think about it. What could give God more joy than us following His precepts, precepts in this case I believe means 'law' or 'rules'. When we are obedient to God not only will He be given “great pleasure” but when we obey God our own house our hearts are also filled with joy. The Psalm even goes on to say that God's commands are so radiant meaning 'holy' that when we take the time to honor and obey God's perfect law that
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

It will give our eyes a light. To be honest I think the light is visible in our lives. The light is the happiness that we get from obeying God and being in His blessing. When a person is clearly going after God and seeking God's wisdom in their life you can tell the difference not only in their life but in their attitude. The light is your attitude and your actions and if you are truly a set-apart girl living your life for God people will be able to tell by those things. That is what will give God joy. But that is not all.

In the New Testament Jesus says

“Whoever has my commands and obeys them He is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my father and I to will love him and show my self to him.” John 14:21

So not only does it give God joy when we love Him and keep His commandments it also shows God that we love Him. How sweet is that!? Jesus goes on to say to His disciples in Luke 10

“…but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure”

This stuff wasn't just meant for your parents and your churches pastors, elders, and deacons. These concepts in the Bible about God and everything else the Bible talks about were meant for you to understand. In the passage above it says Jesus was filled with joy not because His disciples did something really amazing, Jesus was filled with joy because the disciples simply understood a concept about Him.

What three things can we take away from the passages I talked about today. God takes joy when we obey His commandments. The Bible says whoever loves God obeys His commandments and when you obey God's commandments God will reveal Himself to you. And lastly, Jesus rejoices, or is filled with joy, when we understand things about Him, God, and the Bible.

Some things I want to leave you with to consider and to answer in your heart and if you have a spiritual journal these would be good questions to answer in there. If you don't have a journal I would definitely encourage you to get one and write down and answer these questions.

Do you really love God?
What have you done recently to bring joy to God?
One of the biggest things that we looked at today that to bring joy to God, God says to obey Him. Have you been obeying God?
One of the biggest things you can do to honor God and obey God is to honor and obey your parents. How are you doing on that?

Challenge: These next few days bring God joy by obeying your parents. Instead of arguing and sulking when they ask you to do something just do it. Also, do one chore in your house that you don't normally without being asked. See what happens.