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Joy to the World



  If you asked many to describe a typical Christian you might hear words like, grumpy, angry, condensing, pompous, judgmental, and complaining. This may be because of the negative view the world has put on Christians. 

  But there might be a bit of truth in it as well.

  After working in ministry for twenty-five plus years, I can tell you some church attenders seem to love to be miserable and make others miserable as well. This is a shame since the word that we see used over and over to describe the faithful in the Scriptures is Joy.

 Consider Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Or John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. Galatians 5:22 tells us joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Romasn14:17 says it is a characteristic of the kingdom of God. Still not convinced, read the book of Philippians. You can’t go more than a few sentences without seeing the word joy or rejoice.

 What we should be showing to the world is our joy. The joy of our salvation. The joy of the fellowship of the saints. The joy of the promises of God. The joy of a place prepared for us.

 If we can’t have joy in that we might not have ourselves in the right place. 

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