Joyce Meyer - Joy (02/01/2026)
Joy is the calm delight we can have every day because Jesus came that we might have life and enjoy it to the full (John 10:10). It's part of the fruit of the Spirit, not based on circumstances but on a right relationship with God through repentance, His presence, and trust. We must guard this joy since the joy of the Lord is our strength, allowing us to enjoy life even in trials.
Understanding True Joy as a Fruit of the Spirit
Well, thank you for joining me today on "Enjoying Everyday Life". And you know, I pray that the things I teach will help you to enjoy your life every day, because Jesus wants you to enjoy your life. John 10:10, "The thief only comes to kill, to steal, and destroy. But I came that you might have and enjoy your life (to the full, until it overflows)". He not only wants us to enjoy our life, He wants us to have joy. And today, I'm talking to you about the fruit of joy. We're doing a series on the fruit of the Spirit. Talked about love yesterday, and today we're gonna talk about joy.
And I wonder what people think joy is. Is it just hilarity and laughing all the time? No, not really. It can be that. It can be... here's a definition: "A shout, a proclamation, singing, triumph, cheerful, cheerfulness". And my favorite, "a calm delight". And that's what I like. And I think that that's what I live in. Now, I love a good laugh as much as anybody else, but usually if we laugh, it's because there's something funny to laugh about. But this joy, that's a calm delight, we can have that when nothing special is going on. It's just, you live with it. You have that calm delight in your heart.
You don't have to have something super spiritual going on all the time or super wonderful going on all the time to be happy. You just have a calm delight because you know Jesus and because you're living for Him, and you know you're gonna go to heaven and you just feel good about everything. "Make a tree good, and its fruit good, or make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad; for a tree is recognized and known by its fruit". In Galatians 5, Paul taught the Christians about the difference in the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. And I could start giving you a list and you'd know immediately, "Well, that's the flesh. Well, that's the Spirit. Well, that's the flesh. Well, that's the Spirit".
How the Fruit of the Spirit Shows in Daily Life
And so, Paul tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, humility, all kinds of wonderful things. And really, we should pray about the fruit of the Spirit, ask God to help us develop the fruit of the Spirit. And we should study the fruit of the Spirit on a real regular basis. In other words, you look at Galatians 5 and you see what the fruit of the Spirit is, and then you can do a thorough study on each one of them and it will really benefit you. Matter of fact, we have a series on "The Fruit of the Spirit" and my team tells me that that's one of our still top-selling albums, "The Fruit of the Spirit".
How will they know you? By your fruit. You know, we can claim all kinds of things, but the reality comes out from the fruit of our life in all seasons. Not just when you're getting your way, but how do you act when you're not getting your way? How about when you've got a trial or a tribulation? Do you get sour and mean and angry? Or can you still maintain that calm delight in your heart? Joy is not to be totally based on our circumstances. Happiness may come because of what's happening, but not joy. Joy is a different thing. Joy is like a deep well down on the inside of us.
Happiness... I'm happy when something wonderful is happening to me. But I don't have anything particularly wonderful happening to me so far today, except I get to teach you. And that's good. But even this morning, I didn't feel real great physically this morning because I'd been out preaching over the weekend and didn't really have a great deal of time to rest. But you know, I still had that calm delight in my soul. I wasn't unhappy because I didn't feel real great. And before long, I got over it and went on about my business. You can always have joy.
Joy Comes from a Right Relationship with God
Joy, first of all, is based on having a right relationship with God through Christ. You're not gonna have any joy if there's something blocking or hindering your relationship with Jesus. Psalm 16:11 says, "There's fullness of joy in His presence". So, spending time with God. "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy..." Psalm 16:11, "at Your right hand there are pleasures evermore". That's why we can sense God's presence when we're around godly people, or when we listen to great music that's worshiping Him. Or when we're in church and there's an anointing there and we sense God's presence. It makes us happy when we sense His presence.
You know, we hear the kingdom of God talked about often, "Well, the kingdom of God". Well, what is the kingdom of God? Romans 14:17 says, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink..." or you might say, "it's not things," "but it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost". And I, personally, think they have to come in that order. You have to know you're right with God; that gives you peace. And when you have peace, then you can have joy. I don't think we can be out of sync with God and have peace or joy. You cannot experience one without the other.
Right relationship with God requires us facing our sins and truly being repentant. Now, God doesn't stop loving you because you sin. Matter of fact, there's never a moment in your life when you are unloved. Isn't that beautiful? And you should know that. If you have children, you should know that. You may not like everything they do, but you never stop loving them. You love them. Sometimes they can make you really mad, but you still love them. And God always loves us. He never rejects us. We're accepted, we're loved. And He never changes His mind about that.
The Power of Repentance for Restoring Joy
But we do need, for our sake, to admit our sins and repent of them. And the Bible says that when we do, God instantly forgives us, completely removes our sin, forgets them, moves them as far as the east is from the west, and remembers them no more. Wow, is that ever good. Here's an excellent example of how a person feels before and after repentance. In Psalm 32, when David had not yet repented over his sin with Bathsheba, he committed adultery with her, had her husband killed after she became pregnant so he wouldn't know what he had done. And he finally prayed this prayer: "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to You and I did not cover up my iniquity. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.' And You forgave the guilt of my sin".
The Amplified Bible says, "and You instantly forgave my sin and removed the guilt". Wow, that is so good. You don't have to pay for your sins. Jesus already paid for them. All you have to do is admit them. Be willing to turn away from them. Ask God to help you; you can't change on your own. Thank God you've always got a helper with you. That's a good enough reason to have joy. We don't have to do the doing. We just pray and ask God to help us and receive His help. "Therefore, let all the faithful pray to You while You may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance".
God's Will for Us to Enjoy Life Abundantly
It's God's will that we have and express joy. I started today with John 10:10, which is the scripture that we base the name of our program on. "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I came that you might have and enjoy life, have it in abundance (to the full and overflows)". Well, why is that so important to me? Because being abused sexually from the time I was a little girl, I never really got to be a kid. And I think every healthy adult needs to have a child on the inside of 'em too, where we can come to God with childlike faith. And I have felt like I've been an adult all my life. I felt that I had the responsibility of making sure my mother never found out what my dad was doing.
And I've always had a false sense of responsibility because I felt like what my dad was doing to me was my fault, even though it wasn't. And I didn't have anybody at that time to tell me any different. And so, when I found out that God wanted me to actually enjoy my life, wow. But I didn't know how to do it because I didn't have that childlike person in me. So, I started learning how to enjoy my life. And I kind of started backwards. I started by looking at all the things that stole my joy, and I knew that I needed to eliminate some of those things. And then, I had to learn that joy was not, you know, this hilarity, laughing all the time, but it could just be this calm delight in my soul.
Jesus came that we might have and enjoy our life. Well, you know, maybe you enjoy some segments of your life, but I think that God wants us to come to the point where we enjoy all of them. Even when we're having trials and tribulations, we can pray, trust those to God and still enjoy our life while we know that God is taking care of the problems. Isn't that good? That is a very good thing to know. And there's a great scripture in John 16:24: "Until now you've not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete". Wow.
Asking God to Receive Complete Joy
You haven't asked. What do we do a lot of times? We just muddle through trying to do things ourselves. And He says, "Ask". James 4:2 says, "You have not because you ask not". There's so many times when we could get God's help, but we just keep trying to do it ourselves, and we don't ask. And He says, "Ask and receive and your joy will be full". It's so much better to ask and watch God do something for you than it is to struggle with it, trying to make it happen yourself.
The Bible tells us that there's a rest that we can enter. It's called the Sabbath rest, the rest that they were offered under the old covenant but never entered into it. And the Bible says that in Hebrews 4 that that Sabbath rest still remains for those who will enter in. And it's a special kind of rest. It's a rest that operates even when everything is not going great in your life. Hebrews 4:3 and then 10 and 11: "Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, 'So I declared an oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest".' And yet His works have been finished since the creation of the world. For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience".
Well, he's talking here about the difference in works of the flesh and rest. And works of the flesh are when we try to do God's job and there's no way that we can do that. Works of the flesh is me trying to do what only God can do, and I just wear myself out. I don't have any joy. I don't have any peace. We see many examples of it in the word of God. I did it. I tried to change my husband. I tried to change my kids. I tried to change myself. We're always trying to do something. But if we take all that effort we put into trying and put it into prayer, we'll see God move on our behalf and He'll change things.
Avoiding Works of the Flesh to Keep Joy
Abraham and Sarah got into works of the flesh. God had promised them a child, but it didn't happen, didn't happen, didn't happen, didn't happen. And they were getting older and older, and they were already past childbearing years. It was gonna take a miracle for them to have a child. And after about 20 years had gone by, they were tired of waiting. And Sarah got a great idea. She said, "Why don't you take my handmaiden to be your secondary wife and you have intercourse with her and get her pregnant, and then I'll have a child through her". And it just ended up causing all kinds of problems. And we do things like that, too. We try to find a way to get what we want, but it's not God's way, and it ends up causing all kinds of trouble.
Some of you are dealing with trouble in your life right now because instead of waiting on God, you made something happen yourself. And then John 17:13, it says, Jesus wants His own joy filling our souls. Wow, "I'm coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them". I don't know what kind of joy He has, but I bet it's a whole lot bigger than any that we have. How many of you want God's joy to fill your soul? He said, "I'm telling you these things". And He'd been talking to them about the fact that He was gonna be crucified and suffer, but that He would rise from the dead. And they didn't wanna hear that suffering part. We never wanna hear the suffering part.
And He said, "I'm telling you now, what's gonna happen so you can have the kind of joy that I've got filling your soul". He wanted them to still be joyful, even while He was going through the terrible things that He went through. Why does the devil always wanna steal our joy? You know, we think he's after our stuff. But he's not; he's after your joy. Because "the joy of the Lord is your strength". Do you know, the happier you are, the more joyful you are, the stronger you are. Nehemiah 8 says, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength". Think about that.
Practical Ways to Maintain and Recover Joy
Are you depressed? Discouraged? Downtrodden? In despair? Well, you probably also feel weak and tired and like you can't do anything. But if you'll get some joy, take advantage of the joy that Jesus offers you. And, you know, one of the things you can do that will help that is just to sing or to... I'm not a great singer, so sometimes I just revert to humming. I'll hum a little tune in my heart. There's a little song that we learned in church years ago, and maybe you've heard it and maybe you haven't, but it's cute.
♪ I've got the joy ♪
♪ joy, joy, joy ♪
♪ down in my heart ♪
♪ down in my heart ♪
♪ down in my heart ♪
♪ I've got the joy ♪
♪ joy, joy, joy ♪
♪ down in my heart ♪
♪ down in my heart to stay ♪
You sing that through about 12 times, and you'll start to feel better. You've got joy. You don't have to try to go get joy. We're always saying, "I've lost my joy". Well, really, you didn't lose your joy. There's just something blocking it, and you need to get it back. You know, in Deuteronomy, the Israelites grieved for Moses in the plain for 30 days. Now, this is an interesting point to me. And the Israelites were only allowed to grieve for 30 days. And after the 30 days was over, they had to go on. Now, I know if you've had a big loss in your life, or especially if you've lost a loved one, that might sound harsh to you, or it might sound like not a reality. But God knew that excessive mourning would zap all their strength.
And so, He told Joshua, "After the death of Moses, 'Moses, my servant, is dead...'" which Joshua knew. But what God was really saying is, "It's time now to move on". "Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I'm about to give them to the Israelites. And every place on which the sole of your foot treads that have I already given unto you". I love that. God said, "I've given you so much, but you gotta go out there and take it". And I think that's the way we are. A lot of times we just... God's given us so much, and we don't take advantage of it either because we don't know that it's there, or we don't think we deserve it, or we don't wanna put out the effort or whatever.
Entering God's Rest and Expecting Good Things
But, you know, I want everything that Jesus died to give me. Everything. It's nice to know that I'm gonna go to heaven, but I wanna enjoy my life, right now. And I found out, in the book of John, that Jesus wants me to enjoy my life. Not just have joy, but enjoy my life. Joy and enjoyment. You know, when King Saul went sideways, he lost the throne because of disobedience. Samuel, the prophet Samuel, had mentored Saul and spent a lot of time with him. And he was grieving and mourning over the loss of Saul. And in 1 Samuel 16, it says, "The Lord said to Samuel, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. And I have chosen one of his sons to be king.'"
In other words, it didn't work out. Saul didn't cooperate with God's plan. And so, God told Samuel not to grieve anymore, "Don't mourn anymore. I've got a new plan". And, you know, as long as you're mourning over something that you've lost... and I understand if you've lost a loved one, it's gonna take more time to work through that. But as soon as you can let go of the past and press on, you can take the things that have hurt you and actually make a ministry out of 'em. Because there's other people that have been hurt the same way. And now, you are qualified by the experience you have to actually help them. I believe I help a lot of young ladies that have been abused because they know that I really know how they feel and what they've gone through.
Have joy. Be full of joy. Let's look at this scripture as we close. Psalm 30, verses 5, 11 and 12: "For His anger lasts only for a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may come for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. You turn my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing Your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise You forever".
And you know, I remember one time, I was saying to the Lord, "You know, I just feel like I've lost my joy. I'm down. I feel discouraged. I've lost my joy". And God showed me this scripture: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit". Hope. Have you lost your hope? Are you hopeless? Hope is the anchor of our souls. It's what keeps us grounded in God when the storms of life are coming along.
And you know what hope really means? It's not like a "well, I hope". Hope... Bible hope is an aggressive expectation that something good is going to happen to me at any moment. I want you to look for something good to happen to you. I want you to expect good. And I want you to have that calm delight in your soul and be joyful. Don't let the devil steal your strength. Keep your joy.