Does anyone know this old hymn, we sang it at church yesterday?
The joy of the Lord is your strength. (I love how it goes “The joy of the Lo-o-o-o-rd is your strength.” It’s fun to sing)
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
He heals the broken hearted and they cry no more.
He heals the broken hearted and they cry no more.
He heals the broken hearted and they cry no more.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
He gives me living water and I thirst no more.
He gives me living water and I thirst no more.
He gives me living water and I thirst no more.
The joy of the Lord is your strength.
The Pastor's text:
Nehemiah 8:10-12
10 Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a holy day. Do not grieve."
12 Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
Remembering that God does not owe me one thing, I also have to remember that the JOY of the LORD is my STRENGTH. Continuing in Pastor’s series this week was joy. Last week was love… I have been thinking about what he said last week about love… You can't have joy if you don't first have God's love within you. You can't be truly happy and full of joy without Jesus. ... You can't have peace if you don't have joy and love. ... and so on. It builds on each other. And it has to start with love.
Well, this week was joy. The points of the message were (1.) that we have an enemy of joy… the devil of course. He’s ready to steal and kill your joy. The devil hates who we are in Christ Jesus. No one can take you out of your Father’s hands, but he (the devil) can TRY to steal your joy, which will result in the loss of your strength. We need to keep our focus on HIM during our trials…
We sang “Blessed be Your Name” I love the line “You give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will CHOOOOOOSE to say, Lord blessed be your Name” It is a choice! And we can choose to wallow in our sorrows, or we can choose to say that it is hard and it is sad but the Lord is still good and His mercy reigns forever! We can CHOOSE to say Lord BLESSED BE YOUR NAME…
Back to joy… (2.) the example of joy…. Remember that in Isaiah 55 it says God’s ways are higher than your ways. Also remember in Psalms that it says the joy comes in the morning. God wants us to find our joy—in Him! In Nehemiah chapter 8, the scribe Ezra stood at the wall of Jerusalem and read the scrolls of the first five BOOKS of the Bible from morning until midday… and when he did so, the people gathered around, stood and listened ATTENTIVELY. Could we say that today? Could we listen attentively, while someone read from the scriptures for HOURS???? We get itchy after an hour long church service where we’re sitting most of the time…. You know what they did after he was done reading all that time? They were convicted and they wept be/c God was talking to them. And they were told NOT to weep or mourn, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Remember that GOD Is your strength and the only way to get to know MORE of HIM, is to be MORE in the WORD.
(3.) The entirety of Joy… remember that Satan is ready for you to lose your focus. He wants to pull at you until you are focusing on the bad, dwelling on the bad… But Phil 4:8 says Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. We’re supposed to be thinking on the Good things. Not the bad. We tend to dwell on the bad things but we’re called to “Seek first the kingdom of Heaven” and there is nothing BAD about that! Pastor asked “why is it that we let absolutely awful thoughts into our minds and hearts that have no focus on God and His goodness???” (I don’t know!,but I’m so guilty of this!) He also said that he doesn’t know how much we can control what pops into our minds, but we can control where the spotlight shines. … Pastor also gave us some strategies…
1. Memorize Scripture. This isn’t for little kids only. It’s our job to keep God’s word hidden in our hearts (Ps 119:11). It’s when we can pull out our scripture in dark times that can keep us focused on God and the good
2.Personalize Bible Passages. (I’d never heard this before… but it’s pretty neat)
Ex) God gave His only son so that Kate Hobbs will not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Ex) The LORD is near to Kate Hobbs who has a broken heart (Ps. 34:10)
Ex) Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid, for the LORD they God will not fail Kate, nor forsake Kate. (Deut 31:6)
3.Affirm God’s Goodness! God is GOOD and He does all things for good! Tell Him so! Tell yourself so! The joy of the Lord is your strength
Thank you Jesus for being my joy. The strength of my joy!
No comments:
Post a Comment