January 2025

In the world around us, we see plenty of examples of joyous celebration — fans reveling when their team wins, artists celebrating when they win an award, and family members rejoicing when service members return home. These joyous moments give us a taste of how good life can be, but too often they are more than offset by moments of sorrow and long stretches of drudgery.

There are two verbs associated with the fruit of joy: rejoice and enjoy. Scripture is full of commands to rejoice and examples of rejoicing. Specifically, as Christians, we are to rejoice in the Lord. This rejoicing is an expression of our joy when things go well and an expression of our hope and confidence when things seem to be going poorly. But most of all, it is an expression that our joy, hope, and confidence are all in Christ. Similarly, one of the best known catechism questions is “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The biblical use of these two verbs point to the source and focus of our joy — God’s grace to us, especially through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Too often we take life for granted. We are quick to complain and recognize the things that aren’t going as well as we’d planned. We are too slow to (if we ever do) recognize the good in our life and to praise God for His goodness to us. Truly we should stop to smell the roses and to thank God for them!

Read the full article here to learn more about how joy can work itself out in your business, and why that’s a good thing.