Bible verses about joy: 18 passages for when you have lost your gladness

For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Weeping is pictured as a guest who stays the night. It is allowed in, but it is not given the house.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.

The psalmist talks back to his own soul, and this refrain returns three times across Psalms 42 and 43. Joy is sometimes a promise you remind yourself of before you feel it.

Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain.

Sowing seed in a lean season could mean burying grain your family might have eaten. The tears are real, and so is the harvest they lead to.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

Jesus said this the night before the cross, comparing the disciples’ grief to labour pains. The sorrow would be real, and it would turn into a joy no one could take.

Then Nehemiah told them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

The people had just heard God’s law read and were weeping over how far they had fallen. Nehemiah tells them to celebrate, and to share their food with those who had none.

You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

Peter quotes this psalm on the day of Pentecost. Joy is found in God’s presence, not only in his gifts.

I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

Said in the middle of Jesus’ teaching on the vine and the branches. His joy becomes ours by staying connected to him.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Joy and peace come as you believe. They are not a reward for strong faith, but the natural result of trusting the God of hope.

The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Before you ever rejoice in God, he rejoices over you. This picture of God singing comes after a book full of warnings.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Paul wrote this from prison. He repeats himself, as if he knew his readers would need to hear it twice.

Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!

The crops fail and the stalls are empty, and the prophet still says yet. Joy in the LORD does not wait for the harvest.

sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

This comes at the end of Paul’s list of beatings, sleepless nights and hunger. Sorrow and joy are held together, not taken in turns.

But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory.

Peter was writing to believers facing hostility for their faith. Joy now is linked to a greater joy still to come.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Even Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. Joy can be something you look toward, not only something you feel.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:

The first people told were shepherds working the night shift. Great joy for all the people started with the overlooked.

In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.

Jesus told this to religious leaders who were grumbling that he ate with sinners. Heaven celebrates the very people they were avoiding.

This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Often sung about any ordinary day, and that is fine. In context it celebrates a specific day: when the rejected stone became the cornerstone, words Jesus later applied to himself.

Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

The first half can be harder than the second. Being glad for someone else’s good news, without comparing, is its own kind of love.