today at train and plan we did a topical study on joy in GOD, and well, let's just say A LOT struck me.
so i shall share the study here =D (for looking back as well, seeing as right now many thoughts are fresh in my mind... because a year later i may look back and have no idea what my messy shorthands mean T_T)

so, firstly, we look at the apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians 1:24 and Philippians 1:23-26, it's clearly presented that he works for their joy, and that he endures the suffering in his life so that he may bring joy to them. it's one of the MAIN purposes of his ministry (of course, the MOST important purpose is spreading God's word =D) - to bring/share this GODLY joy

so what exactly is this Godly joy? what about it is SO precious that Paul would devote his life to it, and the rest of the apostles?
before the what, though, there's the why. (i think it makes more sense this way =D)
why does Paul toil endlessly to bring joy to others?
why indeed? why is it SO IMPORTANT to have this joy?

well, the reasons:
1. God himself is joyful. (Psalm 104:31, Jeremiah 32:41, Zephaniah 3:17)
from the verses we see that God REJOICES in His works, and He REJOICES in His creations, and He REJOICES over us with singing.
you know how we always say that God is love, God is righteous etcetc, but we often miss that God is JOYFUL =D it's an ESSENTIAL, INHERENT part of who God is. and well, God calls us to live in His image, and so just as we strive to be loving, and righteous, we should strive to be joyful =]

and just in case we miss that point it's presented in a much more straightforward manner (God is nice =D):

2. God COMMANDS it in his people. (Psalm 100:2, Romans 12:15, Philippians 4:4, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
i think it paints a clear enough picture ^^
"come before the Lord with joyful songs"
"rejoice with those who rejoice"
"rejoice in the Lord always. i will say it again: rejoice!" (just in case we are too thick to get it the first time)
"be joyful always"
and at this point we shall skim over the always bit, and come back to it later, but keeping in mind that God commands us to do what is RIGHT, not really based on what we can or can't do, because it's not about our ability, but our strength through Him... so at this point you could say that it would be impossible for non-Christians to always be joyful, but because Christians have God, they receive the "ability" to always be joyful. shall come back to it again later ^^

and well, since God commanded it, not to do so would be disobedience...

3. God threatens judgement against the absence of joy. (Deuteronomy 28:45-48)
and it's SERIOUS judgement, not just a slap on the hand kind of thing. (in fact, same chapter, verses 52-57 reveal quite a terrible and gruesome punishment ><")
someone brought up in the study that the judgement wasn't JUST because of lacking joy (they committed many other sins, such as cult prostitution, idolatry, immoral acts etcetc) but hey, looking at v47, it doesn't mention all this. the only reason it gives: BECAUSE you DID NOT serve the Lord your God JOYFULLY.
mhmm. (and later i shall explain why merely serving without joy isn't enough ^^)

on to quite a striking point:

4. Joy is INHERENT to conversion. (Matthew 13:44)
from one of (or the?) shortest parables of Jesus, it says that the man who found the treasure hid it, and IN HIS JOY went and sold ALL he had.
sidetrack a bit to what it means to be a Christian... God calls us to become Christians, and to give up our worldly possessions and love for money and evil and everything we have in this world, to give up our wordly lives, "in exchange" for eternal life. and that means beyond grudging, beyond giving up a sliver of our time from our lives to Him as part of a chore... it means being JOYFUL about our sacrifices... why? because we have joy in God!
attempting to make sense of this a bit further... conversion means fully accepting God, with open hearts and willingness. and well, if we're not joyful as Christians, are we TRULY christians? are we REALLY converted if we can't see the joy in what God has promised us? if we don't have Godly joy, it means we don't really understand God's promise (or that we've forgotten) and yeah... IF we are to come to Jesus expecting to be saved, then we should be JOYFUL in giving everything we have. so you see without that joy one cannot truly come to God and expect to be saved (i've kind of made this very complicated and longwinded but hopefully it makes sense XD)

the following point is a sort of elaboration on the previous one. kind of.

5. Joy signifies the Holy Spirit's action. (Galatians 5:22-23)
quite self explanatory i think... see, a true Christian is joyful. why? because an expression of joy shows that the Holy Spirit works within us.
and the thing is, this doesn't mean that oh, we shall just let the Holy Spirit work within us (passive attitude) instead of ACTIVELY pursuing this joy. nope. it's more like, the Holy Spirit ALLOWS us/GIVES us the strength TO BE joyful. but we still have to make an effort to be joyful on our part. we have to consciously hold on to this joy - and while on our own it's impossible, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, it's possible (therefore displaying the action of the Holy Spirit! ^^)

and wow, bringing joy to people wasn't only Paul's purpose. oh no. he was following someone's example. JESUS.
6. The goal of Christ's words was to bring joy to people. (John 15:11)
and Christ SPEAKS to us, from the Bible, so that we may have joy. and well.. if we don't have joy from His words... maybe it means we should read it again. and again. and again. until we understand and receive this joy =D
and note, in the verse it says MY joy. COMPLETE joy. so it's not just, YAY CHOCOLATE! *oh joy!* (or hmm i don't know... HOLIDAYS! JOY! XD) but it's Christ's joy. meaning what makes Him joyful, will make us joyful
and COMPLETE joy, meaning FULL (OVERFLOWING) joy. because think of how enormous God is, and to have HIS COMPLETE, FULL joy.. wow, that's sure ALOT of joy XDD

and lastly (the best =D), it's simply impossible to not have joy, really, as a Christian. Paul says he toils to bring joy to people, and Christ's words give joy, but how?

7. Joy arises from hope. (Matthew 5:11-12, Romans 5:1-2)
meaning that if we have hope in Christ, we will have joy. because we have THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE! hopefully i'll make sense when i say the future defines the present. like say, the day before the exams, although it's NOT the exams, we'll be feeling rather stressed because in the near future there's exams T_T and then on the last day of exams, even though it's STILL the exams, we'll be considerably happier cause in the near future there will be NO MORE EXAMS left! (sorry a very lame analogy T_T just popped into my mind XD)
so really, it's IMPORTANT to have this joy, because OF COURSE we have to be joyful about having eternal life. i mean, if you're not joyful about that... well, you most probably didn't understand the gospel, or... you could be reallyreallyreallyreallyreally weird. and it's a twofold thing, meaning that if we were to be joyful, we would have to hold on to this hope, and never forget it. ahhhh see =D that's why it's important to be joyful! because then we'll constantly remember what God has promised us, and live for the promise of eternal life, instead of just living our worldly lives ^^

mhmm. so now we have WHY it's important to have joy.
so WHAT happens when we have this joy? (by the way these kind of overlap, because you could say that it's important to have joy because joy enables you to do the following)
but yeah, looking at the FRUITS of joy =D

1. Joy impels passionate, sacrificial generosity. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5)
it's not just NORMAL generosity.
it's PASSIONATE, SACRIFICIAL generosity.
normal generosity is giving within one's means. but yes, giving ^^
SACRIFICIAL generosity is giving above, and BEYOND one's means.
the macedonians gave beyond their means, in their EXTREME POVERTY and suffering. wow. it means that they could starve to death, lose the shelter above their heads. and did that faze them? nope. and even more amazing, they have PASSIONATE generosity.
even when Paul was like "nono you can't give that much, you'll STARVE to death!" they didn't go "oh well" and take back the money that was beyond their means, they BEGGED and PLEADED with him to take the money (even though they might starve to death)
amazing.
and HOW can they do this? because they have GODLY joy. joy in the Lord, not in worldly possessions or material pleasures or money. i dont know, it's like, in the modern world, we're too comfortable, too privileged, we're living in a happy little cocoon and we're dependant on our money and worldly comforts and we derive joy from this but we haven't really experienced true joy in the Lord.
but see, the joy we have in the world, it's like say... a $2 chocolate cake bought from woolworths. but Godly joy is like, a delicious heavenly of moist double fudge chocolate cake with chocolate swirls - made from the BEST chocolate and ingredients there possibly is (haha ok i'm being lame)
but hmm.. once you've had a taste of this wonderful lovely chocolate cake, will you ever go back to that $2 chocolate cake and be like OMIGOSH THAT'S SO DELICIOUS
nope
NO WAY are you going back! because GODLY joy is SO MUCH BETTER than worldly joy.
and so yeah
if you don't have overflowing joy, you can't give sacrificially. and see, that's just such a wakening. why are we so stingy when it comes to giving? why are we so unwilling to part with our worldly possessions? do we really have true godly joy?

2. Joy sustains the tremendous suffering found on the path of obedience (Hebrews 12:1-2, Nehemiah 8:10)
no pretty pictures here - being Christian is not easy. it's not, oh, once you become Christian everything will go well and you will be happy in life and everything will become perfect.
the EXACT opposite.
as Christians, one will get persecuted, enduring countless trials.
Jesus calls us to follow him by taking up the cross. meaning? we go through the same (well, not literally) suffering that he went through to get to heaven. look at all the apostles - all brutally, gruesomely executed. Paul endured SO MUCH suffering. look at 2 Corinthians 11:23-29. and no don't skim through it, ponder it. BECAUSE he was a Christian, he was whipped 39 times, 5 times. and let's pause there. being whipped THIRTY NINE times, without mercy, in a row, how many WOUNDS would that open? (and think about singapore punishment, how they have to wait for it to heal before whipping again. can't remember the exact details T_T) and back in those days, heck, there was no medicine, no antispetic, no bandages, and no one to care for him, no doctor to tend to his wounds. and it probably took a long time to heal, and left a lot of scars.
and that's only ONE time. what about the 2nd time?! it'll be SO MUCH worse, because scar tissue opens up so much easier than our skin tissue. all old wounds open, and then new wounds on top of that, and when that finally heals, what a mess... and no, there's a THIRD time, a FOURTH time, a FIFTH time.
(sorry i don't know quite where i'm getting at with this. but keep in mind. this is the suffering he endured because he was a Christian. if he rejected his faith in the Lord, he could've avoided all this suffering)
and not only that, but he was STONED. STONED. and in danger from his own countrymen (Jews) and the Gentiles. aka EVERYONE. hmmmmmm... because he was a TRUE CHRISTIAN and served the Lord with all his being.
it's a hard path to walk on. becoming a Christian... in fact it's MEANT to be painful. because comfort is the road Satan builds to lead us right into hell. think about it, we can be comfortable and conform with society, make lots and lots of money, become rich, get a very lovely house and live very comfortably in it and rely all on ourselves and be fulfilled in all this worldly comfort and believe that with our own ability we can achieve "true" happiness. and then when judgement day comes? down we go into hell.
as Christians, we suffer. sure, we may not suffer physical persecution, but there are so many subtle forms of persecution. like being ostracised, being seen as weird, abnormal, etcetc. it possibly means giving up friendships, it may cause division with one's family. and because we live as Christians, we suffer. i mean, rejecting temptation, that's quite.. painful. and real forgiveness is definitely painful; because it's the natural human reaction to pay back, better than that, to whine about it to someone else and complain; but to just simply forgive and move on means swallowing all that and well.. yeah.
but yes, JOY sustains us through that suffering. the JOY in the promise of God. i remember someone said something about everything that humans do is in the pursuit of happiness. (which is so true)
it's like, going to an english seminar from 9am-5pm would be painful (for me at least) but why do you do that? because you have the HOPE that this may bring HAPPINESS into your future life when erm you do really well in an exam and get good marks and get a good degree and get a good job and get lots and lots of money.... =D XD
similarly (but so much better) we endure suffering because we know that by doing so we will receive eternal life. we have the JOY of knowing what our future holds for us =D

oops rambling a bit too much T_T
moving on.

3. Joy initiates and adds credibility to evangelism. (1 Corinthians 15:19, 1 Peter 3:15)
now just think about that for a second. this is quite a big one.
firstly, joy INITIATES evangelism. why? in 1 Peter it says that people will ask about your hope. say, the stock market crashes. and while everyone is panicking, a single stockbroker is calmly and happily sitting there. obviously everyone will think THAT GUY HAS SOMETHING I DONT HAVE! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS!! (is it some secret stocks that are still rising and that i don't know about?!)
similarly, when bad things happen to us, and people see us still being joyful, they'll wonder about it, and ask about it. perfect opportunity for evangelism. (and this kind of highlights the importance of ALWAYS rejoicing. which i shall, yes i shall, come to soon. SOON XD)
and it really PROVES what we're saying.
i mean, if we don't have Godly joy, then we'll just react in the same way that non-Christians do to any adversity that comes our way. it's like telling a friend, oh Christians have the hope of eternal life in heaven and with that we see life in a different perspective and we are soandsoandso and really believing in God gives you so much peace and joy and so yeah! God IS REAL!
and then the next day something bad happens and you become really really depressed and are despairing over it. how will that reflect on what you've told that friend? the friend will just be like... you're acting in the same way as i do. who says you have joy? i thought you said as Christian you will always have joy and see failures in the world as fleeting? then how come you're so depressed? the hope you have is not real! God must not be real!
yes, ouch.
BECAUSE of a lack of joy, one may be actually deterring ppl from believing in God! and that is one of the WORST possible sins to commit. double ouch. T_T
(which is why it is SOSOSOSOSOSOSO IMPORTANT to have joy)
and once we have it, we can effectively and credibly evangelise. and that is our PURPOSE in life. awesome, isn't it? =D

and adding on to the previous point and bringing it to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL:
4. Being joyful GLORIFIES God. (1 Corinthians 10:31, Psalm 66:1-2, Isaiah 24:14-16, Philippians 1:9-11)
mhmm, being joyful is a living testament to our wonderful God.
this really good analogy was thrown out by Mr Woo (he led this study):
let's just say it's my wedding anniversary today. so i bought a bunch of flowers, and made reservations at a restaurant in the city, and went home after work and presented my wife with the flowers and told her to go get changed and go out for dinner. my wife goes, oh! why did you bother to go to all this trouble??? well, at this point, i could've told her 2 things. 1, i could've told her that as her husband, it is my duty to remember our anniversary and do nice things on our anniversary and i do so because i am her husband. if i said that, i'd probably have gotten slapped. which is beside the point, really. the point is, by saying that i would be dishonouring her, telling her the only reason i was doing this was because it was my duty. OR, i could simply tell her: because nothing would make me happier. see, it's my joy and happiness, but in turn it honours her, because i'm telling her that it makes me happy and joyful to be with her and that she makes me happier than anything else.
hmm ponder over that for a while =D
and now and now. what about us? see, as Christians, we could similarly take 2 paths. we could go, oh, i'm sacrificing all this, giving all this, being loving, serving God, because it is my DUTY as a Christian. not because God is great or anything and that it brings me happiness, but i'm treating it as a duty, a chore. what does that say about God we worship? or, we could go, serving my Lord brings me SO MUCH JOY and HAPPINESS and i just LOVE Him with all my being and NOTHING could make me happier than serving Him.
so are you serving God out of a sense of duty, or because it brings you joy?

mhmm. so now we have why it's important to be joyful and what joy brings. =D (hopefully it's quite clear now XDDD)
thenthenthen, we go back (as promised) to the command in Philippians 4:4 - ALWAYS rejoice.
is it even possible? i mean, what happens when say, something terrible terrible terrible terrible happens, like say, the death of a much loved family member? are we still meant to leap with joy and be happy and be rejoicing as we would a birth? hmm i dont think so.
but then but then God makes anything possible.

and, God is the ULTIMATE emotional paradox.
compare Psalm 7:11-13 to Luke 15:10
in Psalms, God is a God who expresses his wrath every day. He's angry, because sinners are not repenting. on the other hand, there's God as described in Luke, who REJOICES as sinners repent.
now wait, stop there. the world is SOOOO BIG, it's definitely possible that as there are sinners who repent, simultaneously there are sinners NOT repenting. erm... so... God is angry and rejoicing at the same time?!!! crazy as it sounds (after all, God is beyond what we can imagine), yup =D
another example
compare Deuteronomy 28:63 to Ezekiel 18:31-32
in deuteronomy, it says that it will please God to bring judgement on people and to cast His wrath on them as justice is fulfilled, but then it in Ezekiel it says that God is displeased at death. so while He's happy that He's being just, at the same time He's VERY unhappy that he has to kill the sinners.
quite paradoxical
BUT
point is, it is POSSIBLE to be both joyful and something else at the same time.
because see, this isn't normal joy. this is Godly joy. it's a robust, solid, durable joy, not a flimsy joy, not a joy that washes away, gets blown away in the wind. this joy is more than human emotions but not lesser, and this joy arises from the mind (as it is based in truth) and it is consistent, because God is consistent and our hope in Him is therefore consistent.
and so yes, we can grieve and be joyful at the same time, with conscious effort, we can ALWAYS rejoice =D
we can be hopeful/joyful in grief, instead of despairing in grief, because we have something to look forward to - the promise of eternal life, the BEST thing to look forward to, ever ^^