Monday, 12 September 2016

The joy of the Lord is your strength

Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." – Nehemiah 8.10

Following on the words about not weeping we find the reason why we don’t have to weep. Sure, when we see our sin and our weakness in the word of God we ought to be sorrowful and remorseful for our sins, but we don’t need to dwell there because the ‘joy of the Lord is our strength’ to get things sorted and be victorious over our sin.

‘Rejoice in the Lord always’ Paul writes. We can rejoice because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. We don’t have to walk in misery and despair but Jesus has paid the price for our sin and we don’t have to live in them.

We have all the power we need to live in the joy of the Lord. It is all the strength we need to live a victorious Christian life.

That also means that we do not need to live some type of sad-faced, miserable, woe is me, Christian life. The joy of the Lord should be clear in our actions and our attitudes. We only lack joy when we lack the faith to believe God’s word.

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