Joy Devotional

Fruit of the Spirit - Joy

For our first Joy devotional, we have a written piece by Alvin, a Young Adult and previous Emmaus leader.

Joy - Alvin Chan (Young Adult)

One of the last things my girlfriend said to me before we broke up was “You deserve to be happy”. The irony of her statement is that at that time, much of my happiness, the joy in my life was wrapped up in her. I found joy in making her laugh, playing cards together, and late night commiseration over the next day’s school work. Through that relationship, God showed me how to recognize joy.

An interesting thing about joy in the bible is that oftentimes it comes about as part of a collective, not solely the result of an individual’s desires. “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement,” (Philemon 1:7 NIV)

On the other hand the world around us tells us that happiness is found in your own desires, in reaching your dreams, that happiness happens in ourselves. I said earlier that I learned how to recognize joy, and that’s cause I already had joy, I just didn’t see it. I was focused on the worldly view of looking into myself for it, that it blinded me to the joy that Paul knew was found only in the people around me.

True joy is found when you love the people around you, when they are encouraged and you knew you were a part of it. When was the last time you brought joy to your family? Your friends? This week find a way to truly embody love to a loved one, then tell God about it, how it felt when you saw them light up.