Learning about the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Joy

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22

This is the second text in the series “Learning about the Fruit of the Spirit”, in which we will delve into what is written in the Bible about the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God, mentioned in the book of Galatians and today we will learn more about joy. To begin, I want to affirm that true joy is that which comes from our Lord!

Joy

Nowadays, joy seems scarce in the world, where there is room for so much fear, worry, discouragement, anxiety and depression, but our Father called us to joy and would like to start this text by differentiating joy and happiness. Happiness is an emotion, and God does not expect people to be in that emotional state all the time, after all, as it is written in Ecclesiastes 3: 4, there is time to cry and to laugh; time to cry and time to dance.

Joy, according to the Bible, fills the spiritual void through an intimate relationship with the One who is pure joy. In John 15: 5, Jesus says: “I am the vine, you are the branches; whoever is in me and I in him, he bears much fruit; because without me you can do nothing”, the fruit he referred to includes much joy!

The Bible speaks much more often of joy than of being happy. Happiness is a feeling of joy that depends on something good happening. God wants you to experience happy times, but his greatest wish is for you to have unconditional joy. Jesus stated that His joy remains in us and no one can take it away (John 15:11; John 16:22). The evidence of true joy in someone’s life is gratitude, contentment, optimism, a sense of freedom and other positive attitudes.

Sadness and depression

I started the text by talking about joy and now I will address a very important issue that is directly related to what we are talking about. It is a very pertinent topic for us to address in relation to the yellow September. As I said above, God does not expect us to be happy all the time, in fact there are times when we will be sad and everything is fine, but remember to hope that better days will come. In the Bible, it is reported that even Jesus was sad in Gethsemane. In Matthew 26:38, it is written: “Then I said to them, My soul is full of sadness until death; stay here and look with me ”.

Deep and prolonged sadness turns into depression and can have many causes: illness, loss, disappointment, guilt, suffering, isolation, among others, but I want to remind you that God wants and can restore your joy. I also understand that it is important to emphasize: Depression is not a lack of God! Dear brother, if you are going through this do not feel guilty, in the Bible there are reports of many people faithful to the Lord who faced deep sadness, among them Elijah, Job and Jeremiah.

Concluding…

Our Heavenly Father is with us even in difficult times and remember that you are not alone. It is advisable to seek help from pastors and leaders, as well as from psychologists and doctors, many emotional illnesses can be related to physical health problems. Anyway, do not isolate yourself, be surrounded by people who can help you and try to take a moment to talk to God about what is happening, He wants to hear you. I declare joy for your life!

God bless you!

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