In the Old Testament, they celebrated joy with feasts and festivals. My joy comes from discovering God's will for my life, which the Bible reveals is good, pleasing, and perfect. It's not about what's happening around me or how I'm feeling at the moment, but about finding true joy in the salvation I have in Jesus.
I want to encourage you today to let go of any sadness you're holding onto. Cast out bitterness and resentment from your heart, and let the everlasting joy of Jesus flood your soul. You'll find you have so much to smile about, and so much less to feel down about.
Think about it: everything around you was created by God for your enjoyment. So smile for Him, and let your heart overflow with love in His presence. That gray sky will soon disappear, and He’ll paint a rainbow just for you.
He’s turned my mourning into dancing; He’s filled me with joy. Sure, life isn’t always happy-go-lucky, but in God, I find peace because I trust that He’s working everything out for my good (Romans 8:28).
Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.
A person has joy in giving an appropriate answer, and a word at the right time – how good it is!
You lead me in the path of life; I experience absolute joy in your presence; you always give me sheer delight.
Always rejoice,
constantly pray,
in everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with joy! Enter his presence with joyful singing!
The hope of the righteous is joy, but the expectation of the wicked will remain unfulfilled.
The Lord’s precepts are fair and make one joyful. The Lord’s commands are pure and give insight for life.
The Lord your God is in your midst; he is a warrior who can deliver. He takes great delight in you; he renews you by his love; he shouts for joy over you.”
I will remember and weep! For I was once walking along with the great throng to the temple of God, shouting and giving thanks along with the crowd as we celebrated the holy festival.
Go, eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, because God has already approved your works.
The Lord strengthens and protects me; I trust in him with all my heart. I am rescued and my heart is full of joy; I will sing to him in gratitude.
I have concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live,
and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things are a gift from God.
For the kingdom of God does not consist of food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
When the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines; when the olive trees do not produce, and the fields yield no crops; when the sheep disappear from the pen, and there are no cattle in the stalls,
I will rejoice because of the Lord; I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!
You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
For his anger lasts only a brief moment, and his good favor restores one’s life. One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning.
Then you turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy.
You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord! It is appropriate for the morally upright to offer him praise.
Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance! Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey!
For you, O Lord, have made me happy by your work. I will sing for joy because of what you have done.
The godly bask in the light; the morally upright experience joy.
You godly ones, rejoice in the Lord! Give thanks to his holy name.
At that time we laughed loudly and shouted for joy. At that time the nations said, “The Lord has accomplished great things for these people.”
The Lord did indeed accomplish great things for us. We were happy.
How blessed are the people who experience these things! How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
All the days of the afflicted are bad, but one with a cheerful heart has a continual feast.
For to the one who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner, he gives the task of amassing wealth – only to give it to the one who pleases God. This task of the wicked is futile – like chasing the wind!
To every man whom God has given wealth, and possessions, he has also given him the ability to eat from them, to receive his reward and to find enjoyment in his toil; these things are the gift of God.
Look, God is my deliverer! I will trust in him and not fear. For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; he has become my deliverer.”
Joyfully you will draw water from the springs of deliverance.
those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. They will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.
Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return; they will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.
Indeed you will go out with joy; you will be led along in peace; the mountains and hills will give a joyful shout before you, and all the trees in the field will clap their hands.
to strengthen those who mourn in Zion, by giving them a turban, instead of ashes, oil symbolizing joy, instead of mourning, a garment symbolizing praise, instead of discouragement. They will be called oaks of righteousness, trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor.
As your words came to me I drank them in, and they filled my heart with joy and happiness because I belong to you.
The Lord says, “At that time young women will dance and be glad. Young men and old men will rejoice. I will turn their grief into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy in place of their sorrow.
Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way.
His master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’
“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names stand written in heaven.”
I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
I tell you the solemn truth, you will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into joy.
But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience my joy completed in themselves.
You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of joy with your presence.’
through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.
Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,
so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I have great confidence in you; I take great pride on your behalf. I am filled with encouragement; I am overflowing with joy in the midst of all our suffering.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in your hearts to God.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, when you received the message with joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, despite great affliction.
keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials,
For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.
But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.
For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror.
For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.
But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does.
If someone thinks he is religious yet does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives his heart, his religion is futile.
Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad.
But may all who take shelter in you be happy! May they continually shout for joy! Shelter them so that those who are loyal to you may rejoice!
Rejoice in the Lord and be happy, you who are godly! Shout for joy, all you who are morally upright!
How blessed are the people who worship you! O Lord, they experience your favor.
They rejoice in your name all day long, and are vindicated by your justice.
Come! Let’s sing for joy to the Lord! Let’s shout out praises to our protector who delivers us!
For forty years I was continually disgusted with that generation, and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; they do not obey my commands.’
So I made a vow in my anger, ‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’”
Let’s enter his presence with thanksgiving! Let’s shout out to him in celebration!
Those who shed tears as they plant will shout for joy when they reap the harvest.
The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag of seed, will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain.
You have enlarged the nation; you give them great joy. They rejoice in your presence as harvesters rejoice; as warriors celebrate when they divide up the plunder.
The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord; the poor among humankind will take delight in the Holy One of Israel.
Shout for joy, O sky! Rejoice, O earth! Let the mountains give a joyful shout! For the Lord consoles his people and shows compassion to the oppressed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; I will be overjoyed because of my God. For he clothes me in garments of deliverance; he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would; I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry.
When you see this, you will be happy, and you will be revived. The Lord will reveal his power to his servants and his anger to his enemies.
I will rebuild you, my dear children Israel, so that you will once again be built up. Once again you will take up the tambourine and join in the happy throng of dancers.
Once again there will be sounds of joy and gladness and the glad celebrations of brides and grooms. Once again people will bring their thank offerings to the temple of the Lord and will say, “Give thanks to the Lord who rules over all. For the Lord is good and his unfailing love lasts forever.” For I, the Lord, affirm that I will restore the land to what it was in days of old.’
I will rejoice because of the Lord; I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! Listen carefully, for I proclaim to you good news that brings great joy to all the people:
The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete.
So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they were relating at length the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy to all the brothers.
Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice, set things right, be encouraged, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
So then, my brothers and sisters, dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
For who is our hope or joy or crown to boast of before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not of course you?
But although we suffered earlier and were mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of much opposition.
For you are our glory and joy!
For how can we thank God enough for you, for all the joy we feel because of you before our God?
I rejoiced greatly because I have found some of your children living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded us.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, just as you are living according to the truth.
I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are living according to the truth.
Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish before his glorious presence,