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But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23
The nature of fruit trees to produce fruit. The type of fruit they produce identifies the type of tree they are. Apple trees produce apples, pear trees produce pears, etc. While climate may affect the amount and quality of the fruit, nothing changes the type of fruit they produce.
People are a lot like fruit trees. You can tell the character of a person by the fruit he/she produces. Jesus says, “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” (Matthew 7:20)
We all know people who can enter a room and completely change the atmosphere just by their presence. To some, joy may be considered an emotion, but emotions can deceive. Emotions can change with the situation. To the follower of Jesus, joy isn’t so much an emotion as it is a character trait. We don’t ’have joy’ we are joy!
Paul tells us that joy is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit that lives within each one of us. ‘But’, you may say, ‘I’m not feeling very joyful right now.’ The reality is, it’s difficult to be joyful when there are so many things that are going wrong.
Relationships are struggling. Wars are numerous. Society seems on the brink of self-destruction. Weather and climate patterns are changing. There seems to be no end to the struggles before us.
So how can we have joy in the midst of pain? Humanly speaking, we can’t. That’s the sad reality. But when we are filled with Holy Spirit power, He produces His fruit in us and one part of that fruit is joy!
Just as you can tell an apple tree from a distance, you can tell a Spirit-filled believer from a distance because they have a joy about them that is evident. I’ve seen it, and I’m sure you have too. You are at a store or some social event and talk with a total stranger and get that feeling they are a brother or sister in Christ. You feel their joy.
The closer we are to the Holy Spirit the more He has the freedom to produce the fruit of joy in your life. Let the true joy of the Christmas season be a powerful force in your relationships.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
What’s robbing you of your joy? I love the story of Christmas and all it’s plots that we may miss. Take Mary for instance. She was a young teenager in an obscure town. Her only hope for claim to fame would be marrying the man of her dreams.
Then the angel showed up and everything changed. She found out she was pregnant, but not by Joseph, by the Holy Spirit. From that point forward her life would never be the same. Yet what amazes me is her attitude. She doesn’t scoff in unbelief. She doesn’t argue with God about His decision. She sings a new song of praise and joy!
Too often we allow things in our lives to rob us of joy. Unmet expectations, criticism, negative self-talk, failure and more can take away the joy God wants us to have.
In Paul’s letter to the Roman believers he prays that they (and us) would experience joy and peace. Simply stated, peace is that attitude we have about what’s going on around us. We can be full of fear or faith, we can act in courage or hide in despair, we can move forward or slip back to where we were.
Joy on the other hand is an attitude of the heart. Peace relates to the external, joy empowers the internal. So, where to we get joy? When life goes south, when those you trusted abandon you, when life deals you a critical blow it’s hard to have joy in your own strength.
You can’t just decide to be joyful. But that’s where God comes in through the power of Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is control of our minds our focus changes from despair to joy.
Our enemy Satan works overtime to find ways to kill our joy. He knows we are forgiven. He knows we will be in heaven someday if we have accepted Jesus. He can’t change our destiny, but he can change our outlook if we let him.
Don’t allow life circumstances to kill your joy. God’s Holy Spirit is ready to fill you with joy, but not just any joy, joy overflowing. Imagine that. By relying on the Holy Spirit you overflow with joy and when you do some of that joy will touch those around you.
I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! John 15:11
Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus being surrounded by disease, evil, and social unrest. Yet his goal for us in his teachings was to be filled with joy. Not because of those struggles, or to remove those struggles, but to give us strength, through those struggles.
As a follower of Jesus we can have JOY because we are JUSTIFIED through His sacrifice on the cross. Romans 5:1 tells us, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”
We can have JOY because when others fail us and we feel rejected we are assured of God’s OVERFLOWING LOVE. “No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)
We can have JOY because in the midst of life’s struggles, in those times we feel defeated and alone, Jesus gives us a YOKE OF REST. “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)
Live in JOY today because of Jesus!
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 