¹³ “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

More than human joy, that is what Jesus was talking about. A supernatural joy that completely overshadows human experience while not negating that experience. Too often we think joy requires the absence of fallen-world effects. How can there be joy, it is assumed, when there is so much suffering in the world? Doesn’t such a joy ignore or trivialize the very real hardships of life? Actually, the joy of which Jesus spoke, is magnified precisely when life is darkest. That is the time when only a God-inspired, Jesus-modeled, Spirit-enabled joy will prevail. All other joys will quickly be swallowed up in the bitterness and depression of trying life circumstances.

Notice, the joy Jesus spoke of is, “My joy.” He has overcome the world, and even as He was then facing execution, He continued to have a joy, like a light shining in the darkness. It was operative, it superseded, it overshadowed, it more than compensated. In fact, it was a joy that arose in the midst of suffering and blazed brilliantly in relief against the backdrop of the human problem.

This is a joy that led the disciples, after being jailed and tortured for their loyalty to Jesus, to go away “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). The joy was not in the suffering, or in being delivered from the suffering, but it was a joy in the Lord, that the suffering proved they were worthy of the Lord.

Is this not the kind of joy that is rooted in, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God?” (Heb 12:2). Is this not the joy that Jesus spoke about in the parable, that motivates us to be faithful: “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master’” (Matt 25:23).

Was this not the joy of Paul and Silas, after being flogged and jailed, “praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them…” (Acts 16:25). In like manner, Christians down through the ages have been animated by the joy of the Lord as they faced their persecution and death.

But this joy does not come easily; the world continually contradicts this kind of inner, over-riding happiness. That is why Jesus prayed to His Father, “that they might have My joy made full in themselves.”

Lord, help me be joyful in the midst of life’s trying circumstances. I need Your supernatural help to give me a supernatural joy.