The Not So Secret Source of Our Joy

Paul, during his ministry, experienced horrific suffering and persecution. Yet, he wrote the book of Philippians as an encouragement to joyousness. Do you think, maybe if you were in his situation, do you think you might have thought about giving up - that you might have thought about sitting down and having a pity party? Most of us would be griping and complaining to everyone you met of your misfortunes?

And I’m not saying it to be mean – I might be right there with you. It’s just our human nature. And from watching our own reactions, we know it doesn’t take the extremes of Paul’s situation to send us into the pits of despair. It really doesn’t take much at all. Most of us can wallow in self-pity with the roses growing all around us - with hardly anything going wrong. We’re just that way.

But not Paul! Since his salvation, he had been living a life of unrelenting personal attack, of continuing tragedy and ruin. He’d lost everything that had been important to him in his former life as a rich and powerful Pharisee. Everything that the world considers important for health and happiness Paul had given up for Christ. And now he’s been arrested for preaching the Gospel of Christ, and he sits in prison waiting on the probable verdict of execution. Yet, he’s writing an epistle filled with joy. What makes him that way?

Plus, he’s writing to a church that was desperately poor and persecuted as we can see in Philippians 1:27-30. And it is a church that has relentlessly attacked by false teachers as we can read in Philippians 3:2, 18-19. And it is a church that was embroiled in a feud between two strong women as we can read in Philippians 4:2-3. It was a church that could really have been gripped in the clutches of despair and discouragement. But Paul is commanding this church to be joyful. In Philippians 4:4, he commands them and us to, “Rejoice in the Lord always! And again I say, rejoice!”

So, how could Paul demand that of them? How could Paul have joy himself? How can we in our less difficult situations find that joy?

Here is the answer: We can figure out where joy comes from if we turn to Galatians 5:22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Do you see? Joy is a Fruit of the Spirit. It is something that the Holy Spirit grows within those He indwells. It is a product of the Holy Spirit working within us. We don’t manufacture joy by the grit of our teeth and the set of our jaw, the Holy Spirit grows it within us.

This is why the world can’t find real joy and why they chase after elusive happiness instead. And it is a futile chase. As Solomon might say, quoting him from Ecclesiaastes, it is “vanity and grasping for the wind.”

Happiness is always out there just beyond our grasp tempting us and tormenting us, offering those moments of fleeting exhilaration or temporary bursts that fade and fizzle. But it is never a lasting possession like joy can be. Our happiness is always frustrated by our bad marriages, by our dead-end jobs, by illness, by poverty, by debt. I didn’t make the team. Suzy didn’t notice me during break and talked with Fred. I missed that promotion at work because they gave the job to that idiot Bill. So how can you expect me to be happy about it?

The truth is, life in this cursed world isn’t designed to make us happy. Rather it is intended by God to be futile and frustrating apart from Him. It’s intended to drive us to Him as the only source of meaning and joy in this world. This world is not intended to make us happy, and happiness depends on what happens. Therefore, it is beyond our control. If good things happen, we are happy. If bad things happen, we are not. Therefore happiness always comes and goes. It is transient.

But joy is not transient, not for a believer, because joy isn’t dependent on our surroundings. Joy is dependent upon our relationship with God. It is dependent upon the work of His Holy Spirit within us.

And for a believer, that doesn’t change. We still have the power of the indwelling Spirit of God both in the good times and in the bad. God is as much with us in the crisis and failures as He is in the good times and triumphs. We have God’s promises on that.

Many times in Scripture we are given that promise: Jesus promised us this in the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:20, where He promised “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And Jesus promised us the very same thing in Hebrews 13:5, where He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Our relationship with God remains constant in spite of the circumstance. If all is well between me and my God, I can be filled with joy. I can rejoice through the good and through the bad. My joy is not dependent upon my circumstance. My happiness doesn’t depend upon what happens. Our joy is based upon our relationship with Jesus Christ. That is true for every believer.

As Chuck Swindall has said about people who exhibit that joy: “Joy is the flag that flies above the castle of their hearts announcing that the King is in residence.” Is the King of kings in residence in your heart?