1st JOHN - #9 - Circumstances should not determine the believer's happiness. (4-1-25)

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John 16:20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy…. [22] Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one (will) take your joy away from you.”
The point here is that no circumstances, no people, no event, no adversity, can take that joy away from us as believers. It is immutable, it is that “My joy” that Jesus gave us. [24] “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
Read: John 16:5-24
John 17:13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”
John 15:11“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Romans 14:17 “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Then we come to those passages which talk about inner happiness as relative to circumstances.

Acts 15:3 “Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren.”
That is not the “My joy” that Jesus is talking about, it is the enthusiastic excitement that is produced when believers hear that somebody has been led to the Lord. It is a positive emotional joy.
1 Thessalonians 2:19 “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?”