LBS: The Nature of the Fruit "Beyond Enjoyment...Joy"

LBS

The Nature of the Fruit

Part 5

Beyond Enjoyment - Joy

Enjoyment comes in many forms. We may enjoy a trip to a new place, a day of warm sun or of cooling breezes, a pleasant evening with friends, our kid’s smile, our favorite food. But joy is a settled state of the soul. It is something that comes because of an understanding of life developed over a long period of time. The Bible talks about being filled with joy, and that has so much to do with living a God-filled life. When God helps us realize just how much He has filled our lives, that’s when the real filling of joy comes. 

Joy is a sense of glad crated that comes when we witness something that is very right… the way things are meant to be or when we have the privilege of making something right happen. 

Joy means having settled the accounts of your life with God, realizing what you can do and what you cannot do and coming to believe that the key to life is to open your eyes and watch what God is doing all round you. How else could a man in prison nearing execution say, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”(Philippians 4:4). Amazing! Because real joy goes deep, it is beyond the merely sensible: 

Read aloud 1 Peter 1:8: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”

1.What are some of the things that bring joy to your life?_____________________

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1. What are some things that we do that may rob us of joy?_________________

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1. What are some things that give a passing experience of enjoyment but leave us with less joy?____________________________________________________________

Between waking in the morning and going to bed at night, find at least five times during the day when you say to God, ”I rejoice because……”

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