Joy Is a Garden
"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." — Psalm 16:11
Joy: a deep, lasting state of well-being and contentment.
,Joy is a garden that you attend to daily
A good gardener doesn’t just show up in spring when everything is blooming and beautiful. They show up early before to prepare the soil, they work in the heat and in the early morning before anyone else is awake. They show up because they know that a neglected garden doesn't stay neutral. It goes wild.
Your joy works the same way. Spend time daily in God’s presence. Author, Tara-Leigh Cobble has a great line she says often when she is encouraging people to read the Bible Daily she says “He (God) is where the Joy is”
Whose Garden Are You Tending?
A question worth asking yourself: How much time are you spending in someone else's garden while weeds are quietly taking over your own?
It's easy to do, especially if you're a caring person. You pour yourself into other people's problems, other people's pain, other people's needs — and that's not wrong, that's good. But if you're not careful, you'll look up one day exhausted, a little cynical, and a little hollow, and realize you haven't watered your own soul in months. Weariness has a way of sneaking up on you dressed like faithfulness.
Joy Is Not a Decoration
The Bible is clear about this: "The joy of the LORD is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). Not just a decoration. Your strength.
C.S. Lewis wrote in Surprised by Joy that joy points us toward something beyond ourselves — it's not simply happiness dependent on circumstances, but a deep, God-sourced vitality. When joy is neglected, everything gets heavier. Worship feels like a performance. Loving people feels like a chore. Fighting the enemy feels impossible. Joy is spiritual oxygen. Go long enough without it and you're not really living — you're just surviving.
The Enemy Knows About Your Garden
The enemy of your soul wants to destroy your Garden. He wants to quietly plant weeds of Offence, Discouragement. Bitterness. Envy. Fear. None of them announce themselves, they just grow.
Proverbs 4:23 says it plainly: "Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the springs of life." If you don't guard you can guaranty things you don’t want will get in, harmful things will start growing in you that God never intended to live there.
Keep Tending the Garden
Joy is not pretending life doesn't hurt. Joy keeps you alive when your hurt.
It's what made it possible for Paul and Silas to sing at midnight in a Roman prison (Acts 16:25). It's what made it possible for Jesus Himself to endure the cross — Hebrews 12:2 tells us He did it "for the joy set before Him." Joy isn't the absence of suffering. It's the root system that holds you together underneath it.
So look at the garden of your life. Look at it honestly and regularly. Pull some weeds. Maybe have a conversation with God about what's been quietly growing in the corners of your heart.
Finally, keep watering what matters. Keep tending to the fruit of the Spirit. Keep returning to His presence — because Psalm 16:11 say there IS fullness of joy in His presence. Don't stop tending the garden.
God has a beautiful, fruitful, joy-filled life waiting for you — not just in heaven, but right now. Enjoy all that He has for you.