Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! …Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! (Psalm 32:11 and Psalm 33:1 ESV)
Be Joyful
Psalm 32 ends with a command to be joyful. The next Psalm begins with the same command. Depending on how we understand verb tenses, it appears that Scripture contains over 300 commands to be joyful.
That is a lot of commands.
I enjoy a snack of mixed nuts most bedtimes. In our pantry, we have a plastic tub of them. But I do not really have those nuts, unless I choose to eat them.
Christians have joy, because we know that our loving, gracious, kind, and fantastic God is in complete charge of the universe, and my tiny life.
But we sometimes do not choose to be joyful. We choose instead to wallow in sorrow. We choose to notice the shadow instead of the light. We choose to be skeptical of God’s goodness, instead of trusting Him. We choose to appear wise in the eyes of the world, instead of being joyful fools for Jesus.
Joyful joy is in us. Choose to feel it, embrace it, and express it.
Because joy is a fruit.