[Darris McNeely] I recently had, in my home, some dinner guests and a couple that came were commenting about how excited they were about the new congregation, the church congregation that they had been attending for some time, and how much joy they had found in the life and the people of that congregation. And it got me to thinking about joy, which is one of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. I think all of us understand that in Galatians 5, there is a listing of the fruits of the Spirit of God: love, joy, peace, etc.

I'd like to talk in this daily and a few here going forward about the fruit of God's Spirit called joy and what we can learn from that and help us to examine a little bit about whether or not we really do have that joy because it is an important fruit of the Spirit of God reflecting the very character of God that we are to take a part in. In Psalm 30, there is an interesting reference to joy beginning in verse 4. It says, "Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."

What a beautiful statement. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." We can take that particular phrase, "Joy comes in the morning," and we can build a little study on this matter of joy. One of the commentaries says about this verse that weeping that comes in the night, it's kind of like a person who comes just at dark, that comes upon a home, but then leaves at the crack of dawn and is gone. Weeping, sorrow, negativity, bad news can come at a particular time, often at night, like that, but there's the next day. Meaning that "Joy comes in the morning" shows us there's hope for the future, and we have to endure through a time of distress, trial.

But joy, if we have it, then helps us to keep a bigger view, a larger picture of what God is doing, and especially, our relationship with God. And it's very important. Now, understand this, joy is not the same as happiness. When we're happy, we're often happy because we're getting a visit from our best friend, a child is coming for the weekend to visit with us, grandchildren come. We've received a gift, we've received a raise, we've received some good news, and that makes us happy for the moment as rightfully it should, but that's not the same as joy. Joy is something that we have, not only when we are in good moods and good spirits, but also when bad things happen.

Joy is what helps us to keep a longer view of God, His purpose, our life, and what the future can be. And that is a very important aspect of the character of God we can take on when we do have the gift or the fruit of joy in our life. So joy is more than happy. Happy is when we feel good about the things going our way, but joy comes from a good relationship with God. Joy doesn't come from things, it comes from a core purpose of us knowing God, knowing His purpose, knowing His plan for us so that we are anchored in that. And when we're locked into that truth with a laser focus, then we can begin to know and to understand joy.

And it means that we have then the very life essence of God in us actively working to keep our lives stable, sound, and, in a sense, focused upon what God is doing. And we can only have that through a relationship that is with Him.

In 2 Peter 1:4, we are told that we are to be partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature is the Spirit of God, which a Christian has. And so when that is a part of us, these fruits then should begin to be manifest in our lives. And joy is a very important one. We're going to talk more about that, but that's a kind of a foundation. Joy is in a solid relationship we have with God. It's not necessarily things, but it's anchored in God.

That's "BT Daily," join us next time.