After our first three children were boys, we were fortunate to have a little girl. It was a great joy for our family to have a sweet, thoughtful little girl. As she grew she would leave little loving notes around the house for her mother and father but even for her brothers. She was different from the boys in personality and affection. She was named appropriately; her name was Joy! Even today as a middle aged woman she brings joy to many as she is a popular teacher in the church. Her instruction touches the hearts of her students as she teaches with emotion as well as with humor. Below I have included the meaning of joy from a religious point of view. It is an emotion that we should all seek because it is associated with the spirit and love of God. Joy, here is defined both as what it isn’t but by what it is as well. It isn’t like happiness which is based upon happenings or whether things are going well or not. No, joy remains even amidst the suffering. Unlike happiness, Joy is an emotion that’s acquired by the anticipation, acquisition or even the expectation of something great or wonderful. It could be described as exhilaration, delight, sheer gladness, and can result from a great success or a very beautiful or wonderful experience like a wedding or graduation but the definition of joy that the world holds is not nearly as amazing as biblical joy, joy is also a gift. Besides joy in a general sense, as the response of the mind to any pleasurable event or state (1 Kings 1:40; Esther 8:17, etc.), joy as a religious emotion is very frequently referred to in the Old Testament. Religion is conceived of as touching the deepest springs of emotion, including the feeling of exultant gladness which often finds outward expression in such actions as leaping, shouting, and singing. Joy is repeatedly shown to be the natural outcome of fellowship with God. “In thy presence is fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore”
Joy has been defined as a fruit of the spirit; Paul mentions some of the fruits of the Spirit like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness” and many others. So joy is one of the fruits or the results of having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You cannot fake joy…you either have it or you don’t. Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica that “for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess 1:6) indicating that joy is associated with God and/or the Holy Spirit and that the “righteousness and peace and joy [is]in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17) and finds it source in God as even “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52). Joy is not as much a physical experience as it is rather an emotional/spiritual experience that often draws tears from your eyes and great happiness for those who are the object of your joy, such as the wedding of two people in love. The birth of a newborn child whose spirit was recently in God’s presence. The return of a lost child who had been prodigal. Spiritual experiences are often defined as joyful experiences. Our Joy has been a joy to us.