What makes Him "HIM"

“You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalm 16:11

I’ve been doing a personal study on the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Lately, I keep getting stuck on JOY. Joy is a concept which has eluded me most of my life. I have often confused it with happiness or a joyful feeling. The older I get, the more I realize joy is something which wells up from something much deeper than emotions.

I certainly don’t have it all figured out, but I do have some thoughts whirling around in my head which I wanted to capture.

The scripture tells us that God is love. In the same way, I believe, God is joy. Love and joy are not the emotions we think of when we use those words. No, they exist in the same realm as our souls - something intangible but undeniable. We can’t do open soul surgery and touch something physical. Yet, we all have awareness of our own souls. Our soul is what makes us “us” just as much as our facial features or body parts.

In the same way, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are what make God, God. They are as much of what makes Him “God” as my soul makes me “Teri”.

When I experience the very nature or the scriptures describe as the presence of God, I experience the purest form of those qualities. I tap into something which existed before time began. In essence, I become love, peace, joy, and all those other things IN and THROUGH God.

This kind of fruit does not come from my own hard work to try to BE loving, joyful, peaceful, or patient. I’ve tried for decades and it never seems to work for very long. I can maybe keep up the artificial appearance of joy and even fool myself. But, the moment life’s circumstances deal me a surprising blow – the good feeling is gone!

No. True and lasting love, peace, and joy only come from the Source - an intimate relationship with the Creator. Once I recognize I cannot humanly manufacture these qualities and they only exist in and through God, then it seems to all make sense.

If I seek God in all things, pray for His presence, ask to know Him more intimately - then I experience true JOY in the deepest level when I’m dancing the silly dance with my daughter. Joy wells up from within me when I’m making my husband’s lunch, laughing at a funny movie, or painting my toenails.

My job then is to focus on loving God, not striving to be more joyful. When I seek the presence of God in everything in my life, then everything in my life is filled with more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God cannot help but fill everything, everywhere with what makes Him, “HIM”.

Against such thing there is no law…