The following blog simply features some quotes that I have found compelling and insightful about what it means to have joy in God through Christ. There’s alot of CS Lewis, John Piper, and Scripture. So you know you can’t doubt these sources…
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – C.S. Lewis
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis
“The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological. At such moments we are made for a magnificent joy that comes from outside ourselves.” – John Piper
“If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.” – John Piper
“God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God.” – John Piper
Scripture
Psalm 16:11 “You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore”
Psalm 30:11-12 “You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever”
Psalm 63:5-7 “My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy”
Psalm 84:1-2 “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God”
Psalm 119:111 “Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart”
Ecclesiastes 5:19-20 “Likewise all to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them, and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil– this is the gift of God. For they will scarcely brood over the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with the joy of their hearts”
Isaiah 51:11 “So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away”
John 15:11 “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete”
John 17:13 “But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves”
Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”
1 Peter 1:8-9 “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls”
James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers,when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”
