The Joy of the Lord is your Strength
Nehemiah 8:10
Some time ago I sat down with a friend to enjoy lunch together. After we finished eating and discussing the usual items during conversation we decided to have a short time of prayer together. As we began to discuss these items, he leaned forward with a troubled look on his face and said “I have lost my joy.” I could tell from his expression and the tone of his voice that his statement was heartfelt. It was not merely a passing concern. It reflected a deep realization of a need in his life that was not being met. After we prayed and parted our ways I began to reflect on the meaning of joy, as well as God’s means of restoring joy in our lives.
Webster’s dictionary defines joy as “the emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good, gladness, or delight.” It is also characterized by “a state of happiness or bliss.” The scriptures have much to say about what produces the acquisition or expectation of this emotion. It is of more than passing interest that four items mentioned in the scriptures producing joy are included in the Navigator wheel illustration!
The first two of these are given to us directly by our Lord. They both have to do with our vertical dimension in life, that is, with our relationship with Him. They were both mentioned during the walk to Gethsemane after the passover meal in the upper room. One of these is found in John 16:24. “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” Our Lord desires to see the delight and gladness produced in our lives by answers to prayer. By this instruction, he acknowledges the need for and benefit of joy in our lives. He has given us prayer as one means of assuring that this need for joy is met in us.
A little earlier in the journey from the upper room the Lord told his disciples that they were to be beneficiaries of His joy through another source. His words to them in John 15:11 were as follows. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” The Living Word has given us the written word so that His joy may be in us and that our joy would be complete. What a promise! He enables us, by that promise, to come confidently to the scriptures where His joy is to be manifested in us.
The horizontal section of the Navigator wheel depicts our relationship with others. In the scriptures we find that our relationships with both the lost in sin and those saved by Grace are designed to bring us joy. Those who need to know Christ as well as those who need to know Him better are used by the Lord to produce joy in our lives. In Psalm 126:6 we read the following. “He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” The joy we have in our hearts when someone comes to Christ with whom we have shared the Gospel is unforgettable. Even the angels, scriptures say, rejoice with us!
The Lord has also provided another pathway by which we receive joy. That joy is to be experienced in our relationships with other Christians. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.” (I John 1:3-4) The Lord has designed us to be one body, caring for and supporting one another. The function of all the parts together is created to produce joy in our relationships with one another.
Many years ago, while working in my hospital office, I began looking at the topics of both joy and peace. After some time in the scriptures and prayer, I was lead to the thought that ”joy is not the absence of sorrow, nor is peace the absence of problems, but both joy and peace are simply the presence of the Lord.” I have remembered that since. I also recall from the sermons of G. Campbell Morgan some helpful thoughts about joy. One of these was from a sermon on Galatians 5:22-23. He was describing the one fruit which is love. The other words that followed were different attributes of love. His analysis, then, of joy was that it was the “consciousness of God’s love.” I have found that to be helpful to me as well. In another of his sermons Morgan made this comment. “Our joy is in proportion to our trust in God. To know Him is to trust Him.” I have found over the years since reading those comments that as my knowledge of God increased, so my joy increased as well. The most powerful message to us about joy, however, is contained in the verse which launched our consideration of joy, Nehemiah 8:10.
What all does the term “Joy of the Lord” imply? In Hebrews 12:2 we are told that He endured the cross for the joy set before Him. G. Campbell Morgan states that in Philippians 2:5-8, the consciousness of the mind of Christ was one of joy, as He demonstrated His self-sacrificial love for us. We are not instructed to imitate or to emulate His life. We have no capacity to do so. We are but to receive His life, and to receive His mind that was described in Philippians 2:5-8. We are invited to join, by His Grace, in the consciousness of His joy as His life( and ours) is poured out for others. He is asking us to join with Him in this joy. The ultimate joy, then, comes from our knowledge and trust we have in Him, from His presence, from the consciousness of His love for us and from our union with Him. This joy is our birthright since we are joined to Him by the Grace of God. (I Corinthians 1:30) This is the joy that the Lord desires for my friend who has lost his joy. This is the joy that I have been praying that he would come to understand and receive. This is, indeed, what our Lord desires for each one of us. May His joy fill your hearts and minds and sustain you fully until the day when you see Him face to face.
In Christ, Richard Spann