Looking for Bible Verses for Joy? Here are a few you can use.
Every person wants to experience happiness, but there is only one place where we can find true joy.
This is not the warm feeling we have inside when things are going great, or the feeling that fades when times are challenging.
Rather, it is a joy that is found in Christ, who is our joy, and gives us joy that is not dependent on changing circumstances, and emotions but on His character and word that endures forever.
We can grow in our joy through meditating on God’s word, and by asking Him to increase our joy, and help us to understand why we can live joyfully through His word.
If you are hoping to grow in joy, the best place to start is in the scriptures. So, here are 6 Bible verses that you can turn to.
Bible Verses for Joy
Psalm 30:4-5
“Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.”
“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
Sometimes we endure long days and nights that feel endless. If you’re going through a difficult time in life, the nights may feel especially long.
But God’s word reminds us of the grace that we find each new day.
Though we may endure a night of heavy tears, each new day we can experience joy because of God’s sustaining grace, and compassion towards us.
As Christians, we can sing praise to God, even, and especially in our darkest times, because He is our light who lifts us out of the pit.
So even though the night is dark, there is a joy that follows it.
John 15:10-12
“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
There is a notion that being a Christian means we get to have all the things that bring joy stripped away from us.
This is of course a worldly view. Because we find that Christ shows us a very different meaning and way to joy.
Jesus said that those who keep His commands are the ones who abide in His love, just as He abided in the Father’s commandments.
He proceeds to tell us the reason He is telling us this, not to enforce endless rules on us, or to make our lives miserable, but rather, so that His joy would be in us.
Not the fickle happiness, but the solid joy of Christ. He doesn’t stop there, He explains that this joy that He gives, He gives in full.
In other words, He makes our joy complete.
And the two commandments that every other commandment hangs on is to firstly love God, and secondly to love other people.
Romans 15:13
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
When Paul was writing this letter to the church in Rome, he included many different things.
But one of his desires and prayers for the people was that they might be filled with all joy and peace as they believed in Christ.
Sometimes we think joy comes from external factors, whether that is our career, our financial circumstances, our relationships etc.
Though those areas can certainly add joy to our lives, we cannot depend on them to be the main source of our joy because they can all change at the drop of a hat.
Rather, Paul makes clear what it is that brings us true joy. That is our faith in Christ, which not only gives us joy, but also allows us to live in peace.
As we trust in Christ, God fills us with all joy and peace, and His Holy Spirit helps us to abound in hope.
Luke 15:7
“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
We all have ideas of what the angels of God are like.
But one of the things that we learn in scripture is that the angels rejoice, and one of the reasons they have joy, and celebrate, is when a sinner comes to repentance.
Scripture tells us that God doesn’t desire any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
When we turn to Christ in faith, the angels are filled with joy.
Even if just one sinner repents, the joy of the angels is more than that of the 99 righteous who have no need for repentance.
This is a truth that should not only remind us but encourage us to share the gospel with the lost, and to care for the redemption of their souls just as the angels do.
James 1:2
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,”
This is perhaps one of the hardest scriptures to hold onto, or to consider when it comes to joy.
I love that this joy is emphasized to not be dependent on our situation, whether good or bad.
Instead, James reminds us that there is a purpose behind our earthly sufferings.
Although we would readily avoid any type of hardship, we know that suffering and trials are an inevitable part of living in a broken world, and being sinners.
But yet, even in the cracks of our humanity, we find hope in the midst of our trials, and we are urged to count it all joy when we experience those difficulties.
How is that possible?
James continues by telling us that those very trials are what produce steadfastness. It is what produces endurance and tests our faith.
When we face trials, whether we will turn to Christ in faith is most evident.
And as we turn to Him, we grow in our faith, and with each new trial we have learned that Christ is faithful, and that we can find joy in our hardships because it is making us more like our Savior.
Psalm 118:24
“The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.”
We all get those days where we wake up and we are already over the day.
There are times when it feels like the day is dragging on, or that the day is only getting worse as it progresses.
Whatever your day feels like, one of the best ways to change your perspective on the day, and to encourage your own heart, is to remember that yesterday, today, and tomorrow are all days that God has made.
Because He has made today, we can rejoice in it. We can thank Him for this new day, and ask Him to help us trust Him through it.
If He made the day, surely He could carry us through it.
Even if it feels like there is nothing else that you can find to be grateful for, you can be glad and rejoice in the fact that today is the day that He has made.