THE
JOY OF THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH
Sometimes, we in the church are accused of glossing
over the fact that life can be hard.
We sometimes tend to give the impression that all
you need to do is give your heart to Jesus and all of your problems will be
solved, all your bills will be paid, you will have a success and prosperity,
and everything you touch will turn to gold. If you are a Christian, you will
have a continual smile on your face and always be happy. We make all our
baskets, we sink all our putts, we close all our deals.
Does that sound like your testimony? I know it doesn’t
sound like mine!
I think the problem is that we’ve confused joy
with happiness.
Happiness
is dependent on happenings. Circumstances in your life dictate
whether or not you are happy.
Joy,
on the other hand is a gift from God, a fruit of the Spirit that transcends whatever
is happening in your life. Joy allows you to rise, even soar,
above difficult circumstances, challenges, and heartaches.
Joy comes from knowing Who is in control and that He has a plan to give you hope and a
future (Jeremiah 29:11).
We do not draw our strength from the great feelings
we get when things go right; if we did, we would be powerless when hard times
and adversity hit, and we would all be easy pickings for the devil.
No,
it is the joy of the Lord that is your strength!
Jesus wasn’t happy about going to the cross. He
prayed the night before “If there is any
other way, let this cup pass from me...” But He did have joy in obedience.
The writer to the Hebrews put it this way: “Who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross...”
There was joy for the Lord Jesus even in the pain
and the agony of the cross because He knew the end result of His obedience and
sacrifice would be the offer of salvation for you and me. Jesus chooses to
go through hell for us rather than to go to heaven without us.
In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul talks
about joy over and over again (Phil. 4:4). Yet he wrote that letter to the
church at Philippi while he was imprisoned in horrible conditions.
How could he write about joy while imprisoned in a
dark, cold, rat-infested Roman cell? It’s because joy is not dependent on
circumstances!
When you and I face tough times, we can draw on
great reserves of joy that are rooted in our knowledge of the faithfulness of
God. That’s how Job was able to say in the midst of tragedy, heartache and
great loss, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15).
He knew God and He trusted God. That is how he could
have “joy in unrelenting pain” (Job 6:10, NIV).
Brethren, faint not in the day of your adversity
because it is the joy of the Lord
that is your strength – Prov. 24:10; Nehemiah 8:10.
