So next we come to joy. Chara (ka-ra) in Greek means joy, rejoicing or gladness. I have noticed more often than not, when I meet new people, I have a good sense of who is a believer. Not based on any divine endowment of smarts on my part, but because there is an attractiveness to the person. I hope that you understand that by using the word "attractive", I mean it in a much greater sense than we generally use it today. Like a magnet attracts a piece of metal. It is the inner joy that makes the person stand out as someone who is different from most that we meet. Indeed, there is something different about them, we, the saved, see it as well as the lost.
Where do they get this stuff? Don't they have the same struggles that everyone else goes through? It doesn't make any sense, that guy should have an ulcer the size of Texas, but he's walking around with a smile on his face. He genuinely seems glad to see you. I don't know one in a hundred who behave this way. Exactly! There is something different about him, and it isn't what is on the outside, it is what is on the inside. Joy! It is the joy that comes from a life that is yielded to Christ and led by the Holy Spirit. It is one of the fruits that is hanging on the tree.
Listen, you can walk around all the time looking down your nose, determined to be displeased with everything. You aren't doing anyone any favors, most especially yourself. And as long as you look at the world this way, the only thing that you will find in others joy is sorrow. Let me tell you most kindly, to get you head screwed on straight. If you belong to Christ, then He intends for you to have joy to the fullest measure. When Christians have that joy, they are the best witnesses for Christ: anybody can teach them to be miserable; how many can teach them to have joy?
God bless you all.
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