This month’s compilation centres on joy as a fruit of the Spirit. What is joy according to Scripture? The word first appeared in the Bible in 1 Samuel 18:6, “Now it happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments.” Here the word joy connotes gladness of heart, exuberance and happiness. A similar feeling was expressed by the three wise men when the saw the star that led them to baby Jesus in Mathew 2:10, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.”
We can infer from both Scriptures that joy has to do with the state of the heart. It is an inner feeling expressed outwardly in dance, music, utterances or other physical displays. We pray that the compilation would bless our readers and encourage them to seek the greatest joy of all – the joy of the LORD (Nehemiah 8:10). Joy is not influenced by externalities, neither can humans engineer it. It does not depend on what happens around us. We could experience the worst kind of adversity and still be joyful. This is because joy is produced by the Holy Spirit.
