Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, who lives in all believers. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit lives in you and gives you the ability to go through every situation with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness(humility), and self-control. The fruit of the Spirit does not simply appear in your life when you become a Christian. It starts with a tiny seed that is planted when you give your life to Christ, and it develops over time, just as an apple or a pear would. The more you cultivate or practice it, the stronger and more mature it becomes.
The first word in the list of fruit is love and the last word is self-control. That is important because we can cultivate all the fruit by focusing on love and self-control. Each fruit comes from love and is a form of love but is also held in place by self-control.
For example, if you concentrate on developing the fruit of love, you will also demonstrate joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. At times, you may not feel like expressing these qualities, but self-control will enable you to show them. As an example, consider the fruit of patience. Let’s say you love your children with all your heart, but one day, they seem determined to do everything that exasperates you. Because you love God and you love them, you don’t want to grow impatient, lose your temper, and say angry, hurtful words you would regret. How would you keep from doing that? Self-control. I think you can see exactly what I mean and can understand how the same principle would apply to the other fruit of the Spirit.
There are times in life when circumstances can be so difficult or sad that you think you cannot possibly be joyful. You may even wonder if you will ever experience joy again. These are the moments to exercise self-control and remind yourself that the joy of the Lord lives in you and that is your strength. You can take joy in the fact that you know God, and that He hears and answers prayer, that He cares for you, and that He will never leave you. Some seasons of life are happy and wonderful, and others are not. Happiness is a human emotion that often depends on circumstances, but joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit-a quality that comes from your relationship with God. That is why every season of your life can have its unique joy, because the Holy Spirit lives in you.
Ask yourself, which one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit do you need to focus on today? Also, how can self-control help you grow in that fruit?
