Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.
Psalm 100:1-2
Recommended Reading
Psalm 100
In Mastering Life Before It's Too Late, Rob Morgan wrote, "Some years ago I decided to investigate every reference to joy in the Bible. I selected a handful of joyful terms—joy, cheer, and gladness—and I sought out every occurrence of these words from Genesis to Revelation. It's a study I've never finished. There are too many references to process. Using only these three or four key terms, I developed a list of 751 references in 477 verses.... Add the words happiness, blessed, and hopeful to the mix, and the verses charge at you like stampeding buffalo. I was overcome by the sheer preponderance of this topic and its intertwining threads in Scripture."
Whenever you're discouraged, it's a prime opportunity to spend a few minutes tracing this subject through the Bible. God not only wants us to be joyful. He commands us to rejoice. It's a decision we make and an attitude we adopt by faith.
It's not enough to serve the Lord. The Bible tells us to serve the Lord with gladness—which we can do in the power of His Spirit and on the basis of His Word—including all His words about joy.