What is Christian joy?  Recently I came across this interesting definition and thought I’d share it with my readers:

JOY. A delight in life that runs deeper than pain or pleasure . . . not limited by, nor tied solely to external circumstances . . . a gift of God . . . a quality of life and not simply a fleeting emotion . . . the fullness of joy comes when there is a deep sense of the presence of God in one’s life . . . Jesus made it clear that joy is inseparably connected to love and to obedience (John 15:9-14) . . . There can also be joy in suffering or in weakness when suffering is seen as having a redemptive purpose and weakness as bringing one to total dependency upon God (Matthew 5:12; 2 Corinthians 12:9).

Source: Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984), p.588