Our Joy and Rejoicing

I did a word study on rejoicing in the Bible. I learned three interesting things that I didn't know before. 1-The Lord rejoices over us when we do what is right. 2-It is expected of a Christian to rejoice, even in persecution and in spite of sorrow. 3-Rejoicing is being so full of joy that you just can't hold it in. You HAVE to express it somehow, usually with physical movement and loud noise. Then after I learned this, I had this image in my mind of God jumping up and down hollering, "Yay, Dawn did right! Hooray!"

I don't think we take the time to root ourselves in joy the way the Bible talks about. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23) Our joy is rooted in the incarnation of Christ. Without that, we have nothing. With this joy, we won't be able to keep it to ourselves. We will have to share the reason for our joy a LOT - all the time. It will cause us to glorify and praise God.  In doing so, we will surrender our will to Christ's. This is counter to our current culture.

On the other hand, if we are full of joy, then we will consequently by free from fear. They can't be in the same place. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)

Food for thought-When is the last time you jumped for joy because you're a Christian?