Joy of the Lord

Nehemiah 8

¹⁰ Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. 

Oooooh I’m banking on that one right now. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Do you know how much strength a person actually has when they are full of joy? I mean one who is always down and sad and depressed and is always negative. A person who is always speaking death and curses over ones self and refuses to see any hope, any light, any possibility of change. A person who is so focused on the negative situation, they can’t see a way out and their heart desperately cry for one. Yet because of the misery they are drowning in of their own choice, they don’t put forth any effort into changing things.

For that kind of person to get joy. Oh there’s a deep down change on the inside, no matter how temporary it is. It’s amazing. I’ll tell you what that joy does for me. That joy encourages me. Encouragement that fights against low self esteem, that encouragement that lifts me up and tells me “yes I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me”. That encouragement that says things will change; just wait on the Lord, which is quoting Isaiah 40

³¹ But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Shall renew their strength, the joy of the Lord is their strength. Oooooh, dots connected. Joy is a fun thing. Joy looks at trouble and does not faint. Joy looks at trials and tribulation and praises God in spite of, while going through. Joy is a boost of energy at times, even when it doesn’t make any sense. When the carnal, logical mind says “this shouldn’t be so”. Christ spoke he would give us a peace that surpasses understanding. A deep down in your belly rivers of life joy is similar to that peace. Joy speaks LIFE over you and your situation.

At least my joy does that for me. My joy says “no, we aren’t going through this today. Not with this for an end result” when the devil wants to bring me down with lies. The joy I feel is enough to withstand the wiles of the devil and to withstand the fiery darts. Pastor keeps saying I’ll be fine and someone he has delegated indefinite authority over my life keeps saying I’ll be fine. That person said something along the lines of deep down there a small part that of them that says I’ll be fine. I’ve heard it and heard it and heard it and right now I’m even speaking it. I’m going to be fine.

I got a revelation yesterday and it was based on coffee. And today I was told thank you because I put my trust in someone. They said they would have this by that date and I said ok and I didn’t fool with it afterwards. I didn’t nag when the appointed time came. I didn’t stress over it or stress the person out by going to them saying “what about this? You said that”. They said sorry at least once and I told them I wasn’t worried about it. My family said I was going to get scammed and I said no, I trust the person. I grinned and said, “besides I know where they live” and I do. But I didn’t say that in a sense of “if they don’t by this time or that time then I’ll go beat on their door and nag”. No, I just told family that so I could excuse myself from the conversation. I was not stressed. I was not worried.  And they said thank you for trusting in them. It took me a while to catch it but I did trust. That wasn’t a hard thing to do and that was putting trust in a person. People fail you. People disappoint you. People hurt you. People lie. And it’s like if I can do that for a person, and the fact it wasn’t a hard thing to do, ooooooh. To learn to have that not hard waiting on the Lord kind of trust. YES! Basically I learned in a one moment nutshell what trust was.

Here I was claiming I didn’t trust, didn’t want to be hurt for all those reasons and I was having trouble even trusting God. I mean, people are people and we are all short and fallen from the glory of God. But waiting and not stressing over something in this manner was not hard. Out of all the complaints I’ve made in this area of my life, not once did I mention what I was waiting on to that person or to God. Not once did I tell the person I absolutely needed it right then and there. In fact, I didn’t really bother them at all over it, they were more worried about it than I was. In a way, that ties into the coffee revelation.

I went without coffee for three days. Today would have been four if I didn’t break down at 4 PM and get me a glass. Yesterday someone at work said that I was without coffee for three days. And I told them I had to pick up a habit and it was a necessity. She said today could be day four of no coffee and day one of the necessary thing. Then the day after that would be one more day into it. If I was an animated cartoon, my eyes would have gotten real big at that moment. Three scriptures that basically mention the same thing came to my mind. The message was “day by day walk, don’t stress about tomorrow just deal with today”. Serving Christ is a daily walk, not a “cram a week into a day” walk or “stuff a month’s future into seven hours” kind of walk. It’s especially not a “years ago this happened” walk.

Forgive me but I have to say “yes Lord” and “thank you Jesus” right now. Forgetting those which are behind and reaching for those which are before. Philippians 3:13 if anyone wants to know.  Also, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which easily besets us. Hebrews 12:1 is where that can be found. Both of those scriptures I am quoting in part because what I’m quoting is what just ran through my mind, what’s important to this train of thought I’m on. Every weight of the past, forgetting and laying down, so my walk is not hindered. Every single weight that pulls me five steps back when I don’t have the joy of the Lord.

I was even wanting to fuss early this morning and say “I don’t see this or that” and basically I was in the mind set to kill what I’ve done this week. But somewhere after lunch, closer to time to go home, I was like “Lord, after all that this week, I want to go to church happy” and I’ve been riding on that joy all night. Then I heard pastor preach his testimony and the deep down excitement I had for him. If I could bounce off the walls and shout “WOOHOO HALLELUJAH GLORY! PRAISE BE TO GOD!” the whole time I would have. That’s what was going on in the inside as I heard him preach tonight. And his message was about faith and waiting on God. I’m still happy and its 1 in the morning and I need to get up in 6 hours so I’m ending this blog. Besides, it’s a little over 1300 words long, I’m not going to make it too much of a burden for any readers.

~ by davisddesigns on January 31, 2014.