Galatians 5:22-23a are very familiar verses from the Bible: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.” (NIV)

It was an “a-ha” moment for me when I realized that joy isn’t some perky emotion I can muster up when things are yucky. It’s a characteristic that should be present in my life—at all times. It is a fruit of what the Holy Spirit of God is doing as He works in my heart and life to keep me rooted in Christ. Joy in Him is part of the root, and joy from Him is part of the fruit! That explains why I can be sad about outward circumstances or earthly loss and yet have joy in my heart. When my joy is rooted in Christ, it’s not going anywhere—no matter what!

This also helps to clarify the untruth of the familiar expression: “it robbed me of my joy.” Only happiness can be “stolen.” When our joy is rooted in Christ, no one can steal it from us—the roots run too deep for that. Yes, we can give away our joy, but why would we ever want to do that?

Sometimes we become so overcome by our sin or our past choices that we give away our joy for a time. This is what happened to the people in Nehemiah’s day. In Nehemiah 8, Ezra was reading the Old Testament Scriptures (the Law) to the people (remember, they didn’t have personal access to BibleGateway.com or even their own copy of the Word of God), and they became so overwhelmed at the thought of their sin that God used Ezra to tell them (in verse 10): “This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (NIV)

Move forward several hundred years, and believers are no longer under the Law but under the grace of God—because Jesus paid the penalty that was required by God for our sins. (Amen!) No, we don’t keep choosing sin just to get more of His grace (see Romans 6:1), but we also no longer have to plant our roots in the slippery quagmire of our past sins. We are rooted in Christ, and the fruit that grows as a result of that contains the characteristic fruit of joy! That quality of joy comes from a solid knowledge that His grace is greater than our sin—and in knowing that, we have great strength to retain our joy—no matter what!

____________________