Quotes about Joy

In other words, in all my rejoicing over all the good things that God has made, God himself is the heart of my joy, the gladness of my joy. In all my rejoicing in everything, there is a central rejoicing in God. Every joy that does not have God as its central gladness is a hollow joy and in the end will burst like a bubble. This is what led Augustine to pray, "He loves thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for thy sake."2

God's reality is displayed to us in His Word or His world and we do not then feel in our heart any grief or longing or hope or fear or awe or joy or gratitude or confidence, then we may dutifully sing and pray and recite and gesture as much as we like, but it will not be real worship.

Therefore, Christ crucified is the foundation of all honest and everlast- ing joy. No self-deception is necessary to enjoy it. Indeed all deception must cease in order to enjoy it to the full.

Don't dwell on your corruption to the degree that it keeps you from joy, freedom, and love.

Jesus's solution to our love affair with sin is that we be mastered by joy in a new reality, namely, God.

The extent of our sacrifice coupled with the depth of our joy displays the worth we put on the reward of God.

People give way to sexual sin because they don't have fullness of joy and gladness in Jesus.

God will be glorified both by the intensity of the present delight that we have in his beauty and by the intensity of the desires we have for more revelation of his fullness.

The Word brings joy directly and indirectly. Directly by simply showing us the beauty of Christ and his ways and all the good things he has promised to be for us forever. Indirectly by weaning us off the toxic pleasures of the world by means of the superior pleasures of Christ, so that, in purity of heart, we can see the beauty of Christ more clearly.

Christians pass through so many difficulties, doubts, temptations, and sins that we need to be consciously anchored in the gospel every day, if we are to "rejoice . . . always" (Phil. 4:4). That is, we need continual reassurance that our sins are forgiven for Jesus's sake, that God is for us and not against us because of Christ, and that we are not destined for wrath, but for everlasting joy, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

God knows the time for joy and truly Will send it when he sees it meet When He has tried and purged thee duly And found thee free from all deceit. He comes to thee all unaware And makes thee own His loving care.3

Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is. C. S. LEWIS Surprised by Joy1