Nice By Sharon Hodde MillerSample

Day Four

True Joy

Scripture: Matthew 7:24–27

Much like kindness, joy is a fruit Christians know they are “supposed” to have. Some of us want to convince people to find life in Christ by wearing an ever-cheerful face. And so we paint on niceness in place of true joy, thinking it will get the job done. 

But false joy is flimsy. In Matthew 7:24–27, Jesus told a parable of two builders, one who built his house on rock and the other who built his house on sand. When a storm blew in, the wind swirled and the rain beat down and the house on the rock stood firm, but the house built on sand did not. Jesus didn’t simply say that the house fell, but that it fell “with a great crash” (Matthew 7:27). 

An exterior of joy is a lot like those houses. False joy can look nearly identical to true joy. It can maintain the appearance for awhile because we simply act nice all the time. The thing that unmasks our joy and reveals its true quality is the hammering power of a storm. Financial uncertainty exposes the ways our joy is dependent on our income. Physical setbacks expose the ways our joy is dependent on our health. Aging exposes how much of our joy is dependent on our beauty or our youth. Although God gives us this world to enjoy, storms expose exactly what our joy is standing on. Suddenly we can’t keep up the façade of nice anymore because it’s dependent on how we look rather than out of a true desire to love others.

Another difference between the true fruit of joy and the false fruit of joy is how they arrived on the tree. It’s the difference between an apple and a plastic Christmas ornament: one grows directly from the vine while the other does not. One is a product of the tree, the other added later. One is alive, the other is dead. 

Galatians 5:22 tells us joy is a “fruit of the Spirit,” meaning joy does not originate with us or our abilities but begins with God. False joy, on the other hand, is something we muster up with our own willpower. It is never as durable or compelling as the joy that blooms from the Spirit of God. 

True joy is attractive and influential, not because of our stiff upper lip but because the fruit of the Spirit can flourish in any climate, sunshine or rain. 

Do you ever feel pressure to put on an appearance of joy? If so, in what circumstances?