We've been told that although joy is not a feeling, you can feel it. Joy is more than just a feeling indeed, for it is that sense of contentment and happiness, knowing that God loves you unconditionally, and that His love will never end.
However, what many people do not realise is that joy naturally abounds when more and more people get to know God and experience His goodness through the atoning work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.
Joy That Shows Itself
In John 15:9-13, we read the Lord Jesus Christ passing His joy to us who believe:
"As the Father loved Me, I also loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and remain in His love. I have spoken these things to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment: that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends."
From here we read what joy requires. First, it requires that we receive and remain in the love of God through Jesus Christ:
"As the Father loved Me, I also loved you. Remain in My love."
Second, it requires that we go out of ourselves and put God and His will ahead of us.
"If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love ... . This is My commandment: that you love one another, as I have loved you"
Third, it requires that we would live for a greater purpose, one that's bigger than ourselves:
"Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends."
J.O.Y. In Three Powerful Ingredients
To sum it all up, the recipe for joy involves three things:
1. Jesus
We should desire more of God in our lives, and that can only be made possible through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the most important ingredient for our joy. Without the Lord Jesus, we will never have the joy that only God can give.
"...I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (see John 10:10)
2. Others
If we want to have joy in our hearts, we should go outside of ourselves. We find joy in God, and then in seeing others get to know the love of God in Jesus Christ. Our joy, then, requires that we spread the love of God to others.
"Likewise, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10)
3. You
Lastly, if we desire to have joy, we will do well to live our lives for a greater purpose higher than ourselves. If we want to be happy and full of joy, we will give our lives to Christ.
"For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 16:25)
