The Discipline of Joy
The following is an adapted excerpt from God’s Plans for You by J.I. Packer
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice.
Philippians 4:4
Paul not only testifies to joy in his own prison experience, but he commands his Philippian friends to practice joy as a constant discipline of life. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” he writes, and repeats himself for emphasis. It is as if he should say: You must pray, worship, love each other, keep the commandments, bear one another’s burdens, set your moral sights by the Sermon on the Mount, witness, avoid all forms of sin, be Spirit-filled to do battle with Satan and temptation when they assault you, pursue good works, and seek to display the fruit of the Spirit constantly—and along with all that, as a matter of special importance, you are to rejoice in your relationship to Jesus Christ all the time! Joy is to be yours always and everywhere.
Joy is, in fact, one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit. But the habit of rejoicing in the Lord, as the appointed means whereby joy becomes a reality, is as much a matter of divine command and Christian duty as is the doing of any other thing mentioned. It is true that joy, both natural and spiritual, will periodically come upon us as a gust or glow of unsought exhilaration, an unexpected kiss from heaven as it were, for which we should be grateful every time. But we are not on that account to think of joy as essentially a mood of euphoria for which we ask and then sit down to wait. Joy is a habit of the heart, induced and sustained as an abiding quality of one’s life through the discipline of rejoicing. Joy is not an accident of temperament or an unpredictable providence; joy is a matter of choice. Paul is directing his readers to choose to rejoice, because it is in and through the activity of rejoicing that joy becomes a personal reality.
We have seen this truth demonstrated by Paul. He prays for the Philippians “with joy” because of their partnership in the gospel (1:5) and calls them his “joy” (4:1), as he does the Thessalonians, too (1 Thessalonians 2:l9ff; 3:9). What he means is that when he thinks about them, dwelling on God’s grace in their lives, joy flows into his heart. Thus he rejoices in them, or rather rejoices in the Lord because of them, as for instance in Philippians 4:10: “I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me.”
As we also saw, Paul can choose to rejoice in one aspect of a situation of which other aspects are calculated to depress. He rejoices that Christ is being preached and refuses to brood on the bad motives of the preachers or to indulge in self-pity because he is not able to do what they are doing (1:15–18). This attitude, more than anything else, makes it clear that joy is a choice; one chooses to focus on facts that call forth joy. Such is the secret of “rejoicing in the Lord always,” namely, to choose what you think about. It is as simple—and as difficult!—as that.
Can we really choose what we are going to think about? In these days when we are endlessly overstimulated from outside, and the ever-present TV and phone encourage the passive mindset that makes us wait to be entertained, the idea of regularly choosing themes for our thoughts seems strange to the point of freakiness. But Paul has no doubt that thought-control is possible. He actually commands it. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8 RSV). Controlling and directing one’s thoughts is a habit, and the more one practices it, the better one becomes at it.
Motivation, of course, helps, and Christians have a strong motivation—a deep-rooted urge, instinctive to them as regenerate persons—to center their thoughts on God’s grace and glory at all times. As a person in love thinks loving thoughts of the beloved one spontaneously and constantly, so does the regenerate Christian think loving thoughts of God the Savior. And as it is common today for travelers to turn on their music and let their attention be absorbed by it, so it has always been common for Christians to let their thoughts be drawn up to God, magnet as he is to the regenerate mind, and to meditate—that is, talk to themselves and to God silently or aloud—concerning God’s nature, works, and ways. Such meditation prompts praise and adoration, and brings endless delight to the heart. Paul’s instruction in what to think about simply gives focus and direction to this regenerate instinct, to ensure that our meditation will profit us as much as possible.
But what in particular are the true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and praiseworthy things on which we are to center our thoughts? They are the doings of God and the fruit of those doings in human lives. They certainly include the fourfold awareness that we have discussed: first, that God loves me infinitely and eternally; second, that everything comes to me from God, at least with his permission and always under his protection, to further my eternal good; third, that my saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus, which will eternally increase, is something supremely worth having; fourth, that the gospel message of salvation that I seek to pass on to others is something supremely worth giving. These thoughts will always prime the pump of joy in our hearts and produce a steady flow of joy, peace (see Philippians 4:7, 9), and delight. Try it and see!
The secret of joy for believers lies in the fine art of Christian thinking. It is by this means that the Holy Spirit, over and above his occasional visitations in special moments of joy, regularly sustains in us the joy that marks us out as Christ’s. Our Lord Jesus wants our joy to be full. Certainly he has made abundant provision for our joy. And if we focus our minds on the facts from which joy flows, springs of joy will well up in our hearts every day of our lives. This upwelling of joy will turn our ongoing pilgrimage through this world into an experience of contentment and exaltation of which the world knows nothing. From this experience will come strength for service. Joy—that is, rejoicing in the Lord—is thus a basic discipline of the Christian life, essential to spiritual health and vitality. Few Christians seem to understand this, and fewer still seem to practise the discipline with diligence. But what a difference it makes when we do!
Meet the author:
J. I. Packer
J.I. Packer (1926–2020) was one of the most influential evangelical theologians of the last century. He is the author of many richly devotional books. We wholeheartedly recommend his works, especially his best-known book, Knowing God.