We Must Reframe Our Concept of Joy in Worship

Worship Is Participation

The root word for joy is actually the word for grace. I think we often view joy as something that just sort of happens to us and we have no control over it. So if I leave a worship service and say, “Oh, that was so joyful for me,” it’s usually just, I felt good. The music was the music I like. The coffee was great that day. I was in a good mood. But that’s not joy in the biblical sense.

Throughout Scripture, joy is inextricable from the grace of God. The grace of God doesn’t waver, change, or fluctuate with our feelings. So when we approach worship and we hope to experience joy, we have to reframe our concept of joy and not think of it as a feeling but as this heart posture of constantly tuning ourselves to the grace of God in Christ, constantly reminding us of the gospel story, constantly dwelling on God’s goodness to us and giving thanks.

And in this we find that rejoicing is actually what we’re doing. We are not gathering for worship to feel joy. We are gathering to actively participate in rejoicing—continually retelling ourselves the story of grace. And in this way, we actually get to the root of joy and we find a more enduring joy—a joy that is sufficient and stable no matter what we are going through.

Ryanne J. Molinari is the author of Spirit-Filled Singing: Bearing Fruit as We Worship Together.

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