The joy of the Lord is my strength
I cannot be other than joyful because of whom Christ is to me. God has poured his grace upon me and I am now experiencing a life filled to the rim, or I guess I can even go as far as saying "an overflowing" life of JOY! Many people consider the words joy and happiness to be very similar, but I beg to differ. When lost in thought about the word happiness, it begins to introduce visions of my favorite golf course, or vacationing in a dreaming locale. It sparks images of children running wild at a playground. I even picture myself sharing precious moments with those I love. Other times happiness reminds me of those unbridled laughter’s that I shared with friends throughout my life. Every person desires to be happy; we pursue this mysterious idea and make it our lifelong quest: Searching for innovative experiences, beautifying ourselves, some people go as far as spending their money outrageously hoping to find the missing puzzle piece. But if happiness depends on our situations, what happens when the golf course is flooded, or when there is no more laughter? What happens when our loved ones die or our vacations turn into our worst nightmares? Often happiness scurries and anguish settles in. That is why I believe that joy surpasses happiness. In distinction to happiness stands joy. Joy is the quiet, confident assurance of God’s love and work in our lives- that he will be there for us no matter what! Happiness depends on happenings but joy depends on Christ.
The majority of us know the well quoted verse found in Nehemiah 8:10; "for the joy of the Lord is your strength." But many of us don’t truly know the profound meaning of this word "Joy" and how the joy of our precious LORD really is our strength. To me the only definition that comes close to describing this word joy would be this: Joy is the ecstasy found in elation with the completeness of euphoria which places you into a delightful heavenly state where you are not ignorant of reality but truly alive and jubilant in our LORD Jesus Christ. Simply put, joy is a taste of the presence of Jesus. It is part of the aroma of Christ, where when experienced truthfully it brings out the overwhelming essence of life. When a person becomes absolute in joy, they automatically become supreme in love which makes them whole in Jesus. Nehemiah was onto something when he said that our joy is in the LORD. If you were to take love or joy and place it within you, can it one day be destroyed? If you were to take an abundance of faith and trust and place them within someone that you love, can that faith and trust stand forever? I believe not! Because we are merely human; and more often than we want we disappoint, hurt and demolish our closely knitted relationships which obliterates our love, joy, faith, trust and everything else. But if you were to realize that these emotions, especially your joy is elaborately embroidered in the heart of Christ, it will never cease to move and then, what you allow to be in Him, will always be within you!
How can the joy of the Lord be our strength? How can a person receive the true joy that is found in Jesus? A person cannot have joy for something unless they are ecstatic about it. Jesus is so passionate about you that he joyfully made a way for you to live with him eternally! And because of his crazy desire for you his indescribable joy can nourish your spirit in a supernatural way which places a mystical strength throughout your entire being!! This strength that is given to us from Christ's Joy, I believe is crucial for the beginning stages of becoming Christ-like.
I often ponder of the Joy that Christ has for his children. How great and awesome is it? It spreads across all the heavens and the earth so much so, that some days I can feel it embracing me like a blanket of fresh dew on an early morning. Who can fathom his infatuation for his children? It is beyond all the minds that ever existed!! And every time I feel his love and joy for me I begin to spin like a wild leaf contained by the wind free from the tree that bore me. I joyfully allow him to be my wind, to carry me wherever he chooses. And the tree, the world that tried to destroy me… no longer can control me, no longer am I enslaved to it.
And when the JOY of the Lord becomes your strength, everything about you begins to fill with his splendor. You begin to see, feel, taste, and hear him everywhere. Psalm 139:1-12 says; "O LORD you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in- behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, to lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me; your right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
If it were possible to gather all the lights within this world, add them to the lights of heaven; the suns the stars and everything that shines it would barely be a fraction of the glorious light that Christ’s JOY puts out! Only Jesus can look at you and see who you were meant to be. His passion for me drives me to him with arms wide open renewing everything within me including my strength, joy, hope, faith, and love... 1 Thessalonians 5:16; "be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Isaiah 51:11; "The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."
