Joy Overflowing

Christmas morning in America is an event.  For parents it can mean buying, wrapping, and hiding gifts culminating in one sleepless night of getting to bed late and being startled awake at 4 am to open the gifts.  For children, it is a special time of expectation and exhilaration.  It is an all-too familiar scene before the sun peaks its head over the horizon to bring in the new day, a springy, pigtailed, four-year-old girl wakes up and rushes into her parents room, leaps onto the bed with exuberance and joy.

Many of us might be able to empathize with such a scenario of overwhelming, reckless expectation of joy being fulfilled.  Unfortunately, by adulthood many of us have become dulled to exuberant joy.  We equate joy with a good day at work, a long weekend, some time with family and friends, a new toy, or a raise.  But the biblical understanding of joy might be more like the pigtailed four-year-old than we would imagine and it might challenge our normal less-than correct understandings of joy.

Just like the springy girl running into her parents bedroom to wake them up in order to receive her presents, joy works in a similar way.  Our joy is a matter of reception, in that, we receive our joy from the Lord Himself.  More correctly, He bestows His joy, depositing it within us.  He does this in three basic ways.  The first is through His commandment, His Word.  When we study His Word, when we keep the words within them in our hearts and on our lips, God fills us with His joy (Psa. 19:8; John 15:10-11).

Secondly, God grants joy to those in His presence (Psa. 16:11, 34:5-8, ).  This should come as no surprise because as God is the source of joy, joy is a result of being in His presence.  Much like a faucet is a source of water, if I put my hand under its spicket in its presence, I will get wet for my proximity.  Therefore, when we seek and find His presence we will find joy from the giver of joy.

The other medium for joy is that it is a gift, given us directly by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).  When we humble ourselves in repentance and reverence at the awesomeness of the Holy Lord, He gifts us with fruits.  One of these fruits is joy (Psa. 69:2).  This should compel us to get on our knees to seek the Lord for the reception of joy.  Or, like the pigtailed leaper aforementioned, we should run with exuberant expectation of the joy of the Lord for it is the ultimate joy, found only in Him.  Therefore, praise God who gives us His joy overflowing!