Those who are close to me know that I often quote many Bible verses. The most popular ones you will hear me say are Philippians 1:21 "For me to live is Christ to die is gain", Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless", and James 1:2 "Count it all joy my brothers..." (and then I proceed to finish quoting the rest of verses 3-8). Now there are obviously more verse that I quote often and regularly bring up, but these are the ones I use the most. Often I will quote these for comedic relief, or something like that, but as of late I have really begun pondering what these mean and why they are so influential to me and whether or not I am using them appropriately. So I decided to dig in deeper, share some experiences, and write about what these verses actually mean, how they can be applied, and how they relate to discovering true joy in this series about what it means to be living joyfully.
The first step to understanding what it means to live joyfully, or even have joy at all is to understand what joy is. The dictionary definition of joy is "a feeling of great pleasure and happiness" but what does the Bible say about it?
The first time I can remember actually taking a deeper look into what joy means is back in 7th grade. I had just begun going to this Bible study through a parachurch in my hometown. We were studying the book of Ecclesiastes (which is where my obsession with vs 1:2 came from). The leader of the study made a comment about joy, and then she said "Money can bring happiness; but it cannot give you joy" and that has stuck with me ever since, not because I was greedy and deeply loved and wanted money, but because it made me consider what joy truly meant, and what it means to have it. But it is an easier subject to talk about than to be able to grasp, even now 4 years later, a junior in high school, and I am still on the path to fully figuring it out.
When looking deeper into what the bible says about joy, I stumbled upon an article in Christianity.com which stated:
"Biblical joy is choosing to respond to external circumstances with inner contentment and satisfaction, because we know that God will use these experiences to accomplish His work in and through our lives."
Talking about joy seems really simple. But it is easier said than done; However, the first step is done: we have a basic understanding of joy. Now we go even further into it, and what it means to live joyfully.
This has been a topic that has been on my heart for many months now, but up until recently I would not have been ready to discuss it because I myself still had quite a bit to learn, and even more to process. But the other day I was having a conversation with a friend and he asked me how I was doing. Up until that point my usual answer would sound something like "Eh I'm ok. Very tired lately." and I would probably go into more detail about the happenings in my life, but this time I said "I have been pretty good... Very tired tho, but I can honestly say for the first time in a while, that I am truly joyful." And I want to emphasize two things by this:
My goal for this series is to not only show you what true joy is, but how to have it, and for you too to be able to answer people's questions all the while reflecting joy in your life. As we go through this, we will look deeper into the verses I have listed above, what they mean, how they relate to a joy filled lifestyle, and how I personally had to learn (and am still learning) how to live joyfully.
-Truthie M.