Quotes about Joy

For if a pastor is not in touch with joy, it will be difficult to teach or preach convincingly that the news is good.

Spontaneities offer one kind of pleasure and taste of sanctity, repetitions another equally pleasurable and holy.

Life in this world is often difficult, but living with God's constant presence and an eternal hope allows us to experience joy no matter what we may face. God's presence in our lives is always a reason for joy.

He simply and unmistakably is happy. None of his circumstances contribute to his joy: He wrote from a jail cell, his work was under attack by competitors, and after twenty years or so of hard traveling in the service of Jesus, he was tired and would have welcomed some relief.

We fill our minds with the stories of God's acts. Joy has a history. Joy is the verified, repeated experience of those involved in what God is doing. It is as real as a date in history, as solid as a stratum of rock in Palestine. Joy is nurtured by living in such a history, building on such a foundation.

A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn't a hint of that in Psalm 126.

All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is seed: sow it in God and he will, finally, bring a crop of joy from it.

This joy is not dependent on our good luck in escaping hardship. It is not dependent on our good health and avoidance of pain. Christian joy is actual in the midst of pain, suffering, loneliness and misfortune.

Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience.

The greatest pleasure of life is love.

Never say that marriage has more of joy than pain.

I wanted to see if I could be happy without a lot of stuff. And what I found out was, yeah, I really could.