Tag Archives: joy

December 5, 2025 · 5:56 AM

Overflowing Joy

Joy is not just a fruit of the Spirit, it’s truly a gift from God for us. Joy is what allows us to be thankful in all circumstances. It is our strength when we’re walking through fiery trials. It isn’t dependent on our situation because it flows from our relationship with God. It’s something we must all cultivate in our lives because of how powerful it is. When we keep our eyes on Jesus and abide in Him, our joy grows. What does it look like in your life? I’ve had it sustain me in the darkest of times. In my pain, joy kept me trusting in God’s promises and helped me look past the present to God’s eternal character. It will do the same for you.

Here are some Bible verses on joy:

1. You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.

Psalms 4:7 NLT

2. Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope!

Romans 15:13 TPT

3. I have told you these things so that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy may be made full and complete and overflowing.

John 15:11 AMP

4. You will show me the path that leads to life; your presence fills me with joy and brings me pleasure forever.

Psalm 16:11 GNT

5. And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

Nehemiah 8:10 NLT

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December 4, 2024 · 5:43 AM

God’s Gift Of Joy

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a group of angels appeared to shepherds nearby. At first the shepherds were afraid. Luke 2:10-11 says, “But the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!’” (NLT) God was gifting the world a savior and with Him joy. Biblical joy is more than the emotion of happiness. It is a contentment in any situation that comes from faith and trust in God. His joy also gives us strength to endure whatever we’re going through. God wasn’t just giving us a Savior from our sins. He was giving us Immanuel, His Son who would be with us in whatever we face.

In John 15, Jesus was telling us that He is the vine, our source, and we are the branches. He reminded us of God’s love for us and that we are to remain in Him. Life’s pressures will try to separate you from Him, but we must remain because there is nothing that can separate us from His love. In verse 11, He goes onto say, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” Our joy comes from remaining in Him and resting in His love when fear, hunger, worry, death or all the powers of hell come against us. Our choice to remain will produce the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. One of the fruits that He wants to cultivate is joy because it is not contingent on our circumstances. Our faith sees beyond the moment we’re standing in and trusts in His plan.

When Paul wrote the letter to the Church at Rome, he had been in prison and been beaten for His faith. His words to them were born out of faith and trust in God rather than his temporary pain. In Romans 15:13 he wrote, “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.” Those words should encourage us today. God will not only give you hope that this too shall pass, but He will also give you joy in the midst of your pain. He will give you strength to endure and come out on the other side producing fruit in a barren season because you trust in and remain in Him. His gift of joy to you this season is a gift worth cherishing and holding onto.

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September 1, 2022 · 5:30 AM

Choose Joy

I’ve been a sales trainer for a few years, and one thing has been consistent. When some people show up for training, they’re not happy. They want to know if class is really going to take the full time. By the end of class though, many of them change their attitudes. They’ll walk out and say, “Thanks. I didn’t think I needed this, but I learned something.” Our attitude towards training is much like our attitude towards troubles in life. We don’t want them or see a need for them. However, when we’ve made it through them, we find ourselves stronger.

I think James was trying to make that same correlation for us in James 1:2-3. He wrote, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow” (NLT). Joy is usually the last emotion that I pair with troubles and trials, but James says they’re an opportunity for us to have it.

I’ve said before that joy is not dependent on your circumstances, happiness is. Joy comes from deep within. It looks at your big picture, while happiness looks at the little one. Joy is something you choose to have no matter what. Each of us choose our attitude in our circumstances. If we don’t, our circumstances will choose our attitude for us. In most cases, it chooses the wrong attitude. Choosing Joy gives you the strength to endure whatever comes your way.

The second part of that verse is where we get our Joy from. We don’t look at the current trouble, but the end result. What do trials produce in us? Endurance. Verse 4 says, “So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” If you can train yourself to keep the end in mind, you will learn to handle troubles a lot better. Don’t waste your times of trouble. Use them for what they’re for: growth and endurance. By choosing the wrong attitude, you prolong your time in them, and miss what God has for you. Keep the end in mind, and choose Joy.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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January 13, 2022 · 5:30 AM

Joy Returns

Lamentations 4 and 5 are two of the saddest chapters in the Bible. Jeremiah was so descriptive of what life was like living under the control of their enemy. The people who were once wealthy were digging through the trash to find food. The kids were forced to do manual labor that was too hard for them. Anyone caught looking for food outside the city walls was killed. Confidence was replaced with desperation, and joy was replaced with a deep depression.

People no longer gathered to talk. No one sang any songs. The population was dwindling down because people were dying of starvation. It was a very dark period in Israel’s history. Jeremiah knew they were living under the enemy’s control because they had turned their back on God. He cried out in repentance and asked God how long would they suffer. Then he remembered that suffering is temporary, but God is eternal.

You may be going through a dark time in your life right now as well. It may feel like God has abandoned you and that you are living under the enemy’s control. I know what it’s like to live through that. I know what it feels like to lose everything and wonder if you should still try to keep going. I can let you know that the suffering is only temporary. It does end and the sun comes out again. God has not abandoned you no matter how alone you feel.

I pray Jeremiah’s prayer in Lamentations 5:21 over you today. It says, “Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!” (NLT) I’m living proof that God restores what the enemy stole, and that joy returns. When God restores you, He will rebuild everything better than it was. When He gives your joy back, it will be greater than before. What feels like forever is only a season. Restoration is coming.

Photo by Nour Betar on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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December 13, 2021 · 5:30 AM

Choosing Joy

Not long ago I realized I was singing one of the most iconic Christmas carols incorrectly. “Joy To The World”, written by Isaac Watts in the early 1700’s, says, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come,” not, “has come.” I looked up the history of the song, and it turns out it was written about the second coming of Jesus and not the incarnation. Watts was concerned with the lack of joy he saw in Christians as they worshipped. He wanted to remind them to look past their current circumstances to the return of Christ when all things will be made right. 300 years later, it’s a good reminder for us as we live for Christ.

Romans 12:12 says, “Let this hope burst forth within you, releasing a continual joy. Don’t give up in a time of trouble, but commune with God at all times” (TPT). Joy is not something that is based on your circumstances. Joy is as much an attitude as it is an emotion. It keeps us focused on what is to come rather than what is. Nehemiah 8:10 tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. It’s no wonder that the enemy of our soul is constantly trying to rob us of our joy. He knows that when he removes joy, it makes it hard to trust God. It makes serving God feel more like a chore than a privilege.

If you’re burdened down, going through a rough time, let hope burst forth within you today giving you joy. We know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord (Romans 8:28), and that struggles produce growth in us. Let the things that are trying to steal your joy push you into closer communion with God. Instead of blaming Him, thank Him for taking the time to grow you and make you more like Christ. Above all, remember that this too shall pass and the Lord will come again to make all things right. We can joyfully worship just as Job did no matter what we’re going through by keeping things in perspective. When all else fails, choose joy.

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December 18, 2020 · 5:51 AM

Restoring Your Joy

Remember that song, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart”? If you just said, “Where,” and responded, “Down in my heart,” then you’re going to have this song stuck in your head today. I truly hope you do too. Joy is something God gives us that’s based on what He’s done for you and not what you’re going through. Circumstances steal happiness, but they can’t touch joy. The Bible says that we will be led with joy and that the joy of the Lord is our strength (you’ll be singing this one too!). Joy is what helps us endure whatever comes our way. Even in the hardest of times, we can ask God to give us joy so we can push through when our mind tells us we can’t.

While every one of us go through hard times at some point, others live hard lives where it seems to be one thing after the other. Joy helps us to keep our eyes on Jesus through it all knowing that He has a plan and that all those hard times are producing His qualities in our life. When we lose sight of that, it’s good to pray what David did in Psalm 51 even though his words were from repentance. Pray, “Lord, restore to me the joy of your salvation.” I’ve had to pray that prayer many times and God has always given me His joy so that I could have the strength to keep going. I believe that God will restore your joy too.

Here are some Bible verses on joy.

1. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

Psalms 51:12 NLT

2. You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express, because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in him.

1 Peter 1:8-9 GNT

3. So you’ll go out in joy, you’ll be led into a whole and complete life. The mountains and hills will lead the parade, bursting with song. All the trees of the forest will join the procession, exuberant with applause. No more thistles, but giant sequoias, no more thorn bushes, but stately pines— Monuments to me, to GOD, living and lasting evidence of GOD.

Isaiah 55:12-13 MSG

4. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For this day in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (the Messiah).

Luke 2:10-11 AMP

5. If you keep my commands, you will live in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands, for I continually live nourished and empowered by his love. My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness!

John 15:10-11 TPT

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October 20, 2020 · 5:52 AM

Yet I Will Praise Him

If you’ve ever read the book of Job, you may have found yourself feeling sorry for him. There may have been times in your life when you’ve even related to him too. I know I have had those moments. When you go through periods of loss or continuous disappointment, Job is a great book to read. You will find that there’s always someone who has it worse than you, there is purpose in pain and that you can endure anything. I don’t know how many times I’ve read the book, but I can tell you that I’m still amazed when I come to the end of the first chapter. After Job has lost all his livestock, his riches and his children, he doesn’t curse God. He doesn’t cry out, “Why me?” Instead, it says he fell to his knees and worshipped God. He recognized that everything he had came from God, and if God took it all back, he was good with it.

I can honestly say that during my times of great disappointment and loss, that was not my attitude. To stand on rock bottom in life, look up from the hole you’re in and bless God seems unfathomable, yet Job was able to. If he was able to, you and I are to. He made the choice to worship instead of to whine. He chose to bless God instead of to curse Him. He made the choice to recognize everything he had belonged to God and wasn’t a result of His own work. The perspective he had challenges me to readjust and calibrate how I see God and how I react in the bad times. It’s easy to worship when things are going well, but can we worship when everything seems to be going wrong? Can we praise Him when our prayers are unanswered? Can we thank Him when we don’t see a way forward? Can you say, “Even though I’m broken, yet will I praise you”?

Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” (NLT) There’s a very similar picture here to the attitude Job had and that we are to have. Joy is not something that is circumstantial. It doesn’t rely on what’s going on around you. Joy looks at where your strength comes from. It looks at who your hope is in. It is defiant in the face of any circumstance you may face, and it says, “My hope is not in al, these things. My hope is in God. No matter what comes my way, I know that my God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than I can ask or pray for. Even though things look bad now, yet will I praise God! He is my rock, my fortress and my salvation.” You and I have that same spirit of joy within us. In tough times, activate it and worship. Remind yourself that God is in control, He has a plan and that no matter what happens you will continue to trust and to praise Him.

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May 2, 2019 · 5:15 AM

Grace, Mercy & Peace

I was speaking to someone recently about the old computer operating system DOS. I remember as a kid learning how to write programs for DOS. We were taught to increase each command line by 10 so if you needed to add a line of programming later, you had the room. Another thing they taught us is the phrase, “If this, then that.” It was a way to tell the computer if the user does this, then I want you to skip to another line and run the program from there. It was all about cause and consequence.

The Bible is full of “if this, then that” type phrases. In John 15:7 Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you then you can ask whatever you will.” II Chronicles 7:14, “If my people will humbled selves and pray, then I will hear from Heaven and heal their land.” These are just a couple of examples. God puts conditions on many promises that require an action on our part first in order to activate them just like in the old DOS programming. If we don’t do the first part, then the next part is skipped.

Another conditional promise is found in 2 John 1:3. It says, “Grace, mercy and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ – the Son of the Father – will continue to be with us who live in truth and love” (NLT). If we will continue to live in truth and love we will receive grace, mercy and peace. Grace is God’s unmerited favor which affords joy, delight and pleasure according to the Blue Letter Bible. The favor of God alone is enough, but John added in (through his use of the word grace) that we would also get joy, delight and pleasure by living in truth and love.

Next, he said we would get mercy. One of the definitions of mercy is to have the providence of God. That means that God will order your steps and guide your future. He won’t just let you wander. Your life will be filled with purpose which leads to the last promise of peace. When we live in love and truth, we will also get peace in our hearts, in our minds and in our lives. God wants to give us these three blessings if we will simply live in truth and love.

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December 12, 2017 · 5:47 AM

Christmas Cards

Just the other day my son was asking why no one mails him anything. Each day he sees us open the mail. Most of the time what we are opening is bills, but this time of year, there are lots of Christmas cards. Each year there seem to be fewer and fewer cards, and each year the cards are saying less. When I was younger, each card had a hand written note. As I grew up, people started putting family newsletters inside. Now, it’s just the name of the family.

Yes, I’m lamenting about the current status of Christmas cards. Since the invention of email, personal letters in Christmas cards, and otherwise, have almost become extinct. Very few people write personal letters anymore. There’s something encouraging about a personal letter that you don’t get from an email or a signed card. Personal letters often bring joy to the recipient. I imagine that’s where the tradition of sending Christmas cards came from.

Much of the New Testament is really just personal letters sent by the apostles to encourage others. In Acts 15, the apostles sent a joint letter answering questions about how believers should behave. Verse 31 tells us, “When the people read it, they were filled with joy by the message of encouragement” (GNT). That’s what letters do. They fill people with joy and encouragement. No wonder my son wishes for mail.

2 Corinthians 3:2 says, “You yourselves are the letter we have, written on our hearts for everyone to know and read.” Each of our lives should be a personal letter to the world written by God. It should encourage others and bring them joy. Jesus was God’s love letter to us. His birth announced that God heard our cry to be joined with Him. Now, His Spirit lives in us and we are His love letter to the world. Make your letter personal and let it bring joy to all who read it.

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October 2, 2017 · 5:14 AM

Joy Returns


Lamentations 4 and 5 are two of the saddest chapters in the Bible. Jeremiah was so descriptive of what life was like living under the control of their enemy. The people who were once wealthy were digging through the trash to find food. The kids were forced to do manual labor that was too hard for them. Anyone caught looking for food outside the city walls was killed. Confidence was replaced with desperation, and joy was replaced with a deep depression. 

People no longer gathered to talk. No one sang any songs. The population was dwindling down because people were dying of starvation. It was a very dark period in Israel’s history. Jeremiah knew they were living under the enemy’s control because they had turned their back on God. He cried out in repentance and asked God how long would they suffer. Then he remembered that suffering is temporary, but God is eternal.

You may be going through a dark time in your life right now as well. It may feel like God has abandoned you and that you are living under the enemy’s control. I know what it’s like to live through that. I know what it feels like to lose everything and wonder if you should still try to keep going. I can let you know that the suffering is only temporary. It does end and the sun comes out again. God has not abandoned you no matter how alone you feel.

I pray Jeremiah’s prayer in Lamentations 5:21 over you today. It says, “Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!” (GNT) I’m living proof that God restores what the enemy stole, and that joy returns. When God restores you, He will rebuild everything better than it was. When He gives your joy back, it will be greater than before. What feels like forever is only a season. Restoration is coming. 

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