Joy is picking a fight with the Devil because you can and knowing you can’t lose in the long run.

“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31).

“They took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:40-42).

“I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father” (I John 2:13).

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” (Romans 16:20).

Joy is the unmistakable pulse of childlike self-forgetfulness and the herald of a coming kingship founded on humility. A joy-filled man, woman, or child is no longer preoccupied with self, but aimed upward and outward toward a greater glory than self can offer. This is humility, the seed-bed of Joy. One aim of the Christian life is to get swept up in the whirling, eternal wheel called “Joy!” that starts with self-forgetfulness, leads to humility, results in death and, therefore, glorification, either here or in the hereafter.

Joy is…

Recalling your true identity, waking each morning to the assurances of God, and going to bed at night having pursued His calling.

“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, and in his excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasing arms; he will thrust out the enemy from before you and will say, ‘Destroy!’ Then Israel shall dwell in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in a land of grain and new wine; his heavens shall also drop dew. Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall submit to you, and you shall tread down their high places” (Deuteronomy 33:26-29).

“Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life…and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”

–Kay Warren

“No one who ever said to God, “Thy will be done” and meant it with his heart, ever failed to find joy—–not just in heaven, or even down the road in the future in this world, but in this world at that very moment, here and now.”

–Peter Kreeft