The joy of the Lord is your strength

Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV) “… for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The original Hebrew word for joy in Nehemiah 8:10 is “chedvah,” meaning joy or gladness.  The root word for joy in this context means to rejoice or to make glad.  Strength in the same verse is a Hebrew word meaning a place or means of safety, protection refuge, or stronghold.  The root word of strength means to be strong, prevail; to make firm, strengthen.

In this verse, the Bible teaches us that strength is a by-product of joy.  We get our strength from the joy of the Lord, from God’s very own joy.  Because when we’re enjoying God – when we’re enjoying our relationship with Jesus – He fills us with incredible strength.  Having the joy of the Lord is an essential part of our life in the Kingdom of God.

Where do you get your joy from?
Where do you go to get your strength?
How do you get what you need to cope with the challenges and the pressures of life?

God wants us to have joy

  • John 15:11 (NIV) “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
  • Philippians 4:4 [written by the Apostle Paul on death row, in a Roman dungeon strapped to his guard] (NLT) “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again – rejoice!”
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NLT) “Always be joyful.”

Right through the Bible, it is very clear that God wants us to live in His joy – the joy of the Lord. So, why are people then living joyless lives?

The thesaurus defines joy as happiness, delight, pleasure, enjoyment, bliss, ecstasy, elation, thrill, gladness, exultation, rapture.  In the English language, we often use the words happy and joy interchangeably.  The big mistake we make is that we think that happiness and joy is the same thing.  They simply aren’t.  Happiness relies on our circumstances, and that can change, from good to bad, in an instant.  Joy on the other hand comes from God, and He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Happiness is external, joy is internal.

Happiness is a reflection of, and our response to, what’s going on around us.  Happiness comes from the world.  We’re happy when our circumstances please us, when things are going our way.  We’re happy when we feel blessed, when we feel loved, when we feel valued, when we have enough to eat, and enough to drink.  Happiness is our emotional reflection of positive circumstances.

James 1:2-4 (NLT) “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

The New Testament Greek word that we most often tend to translate into the word joy, is the one used in James 1.  It comes from the same root word as grace, the word “chara”.  In other words, the concepts of grace and joy are fundamentally linked.  Grace is undeserved favour and a free gift from God and joy is one of the most powerful expressions, manifestations, or results of God’s grace.  This is in sharp contrast to the worldly understanding of joy being synonymous with happiness.

We can have joy even when our circumstances are against us.

We can have joy even when our circumstances are against us.  God’s joy is born of His love for us and as a Father who loves us.  Out of His compassion for us when we are hurting, when the pressures of this world are seemingly crushing.  That’s why, in those difficult times, we can draw from the fruit of His joy within us when the happiness of the world deserts us.  For this reason, the joy of the Lord truly is our strength.

It’s amazing how often the Bible mentions joy in times of suffering:

  • Romans 12:12 (NIV) “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
  • 1 Peter 1:3-7 (NIV) “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
  • 1 Thessalonians 1:6 (NLT) “So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord.”

God’s joy is different from the world’s happiness.  God’s joy is powerful.  It’s freely available.  It is irrespective of the circumstances that we’re immersed in.

Where do we then find “the joy of the Lord”?

  1. God is our joy
  • Isaiah 28:5 (NLT) “Then at last the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will himself be Israel’s glorious crown. He will be the pride and joy of the remnant of his people.”
  • 1 Thessalonians 2:20 (NIV) “Indeed, you are our glory and joy.”
  • Psalm 16:11 (NIV) “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
  • Psalm 43:4 (NIV) “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.”
  • Psalm 37:4 (NIV) “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

  1. God’s Word brings joy
  • Psalm 19:8 (NLT) “The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.”
  • Psalm 119:1 (NLT) “Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.”
  • Jeremiah 15:16 (NLT) “When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.”

How shall we learn to enjoy God?  How shall we obtain such an all-sufficient soul-satisfying portion in him as shall enable us to let go the things of this world as vein and worthless in comparison?  I answer the happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scripture.  God has therein revealed Himself unto us in the face of Christ.
George Mueller (1805-1898)

  1. Our salvation causes joy
  • Isaiah 61:10 (NLT) “I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.  I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels.”
  • Habakkuk 3:18 (NLT) “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!”
  • Psalm 51:12 (NIV) “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
  1. Trusting the Lord results in joy
  • Psalm 28:7 (NLT) “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.  I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.”
  • Psalm 34:8 (NLT) “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!”
  • Psalm 40:4 (NLT) “Oh, the joys of those who trust the Lord, who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols.”
  • Psalm 146:5 (NLT) “But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”
  1. The presence of the Holy Spirit produces joy in our soul

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22).  Joy is not something we have to go out there and get for ourself; it’s something that God gives to us through His very presence in us.  As said earlier the original Greek words for joy and for grace actually come from the same root meaning that joy is the free gift of God.

In His presence there is fulness of joy.

How do we lose our joy?

God’s joy is a free gift to anyone who’s willing to accept it.  Not the sense of happiness that wains as we go through circumstances, but a deep abiding sense of joy that never leaves you.  We read in Romans 14:17 (NLT) “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

When we’re filled with the peace and the joy of the Lord, it doesn’t seem to matter what the world throws at us, we are able to get through it.  Have you ever wondered why after you’ve spent a great time in the presence of the Lord, you walk straight into some sort of problem or some sort of battle?  It’s because the enemy doesn’t want us to be filled with the joy of the Lord.  John 10:10 (NIV) “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

What else can strip us of experiencing God’s joy?

  • Sin will rob you of experiencing God’s joy each and every time. Psalm 32: (TLB) “What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven!  What joys when sins are covered over!  What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record.  There was a time when I wouldn’t admit what a sinner I was.  But my dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with frustration.”  Romans 4:8 (NLT) “Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”  The moment you lose the sensing of God’s joy, you become weak and vulnerable.  Now the enemy has a foothold in your life, that he can exploit.  Ephesians 4:27 (NIV) “and do not give the devil a foothold.”
  • Selfishness, self-absorption, self-centredness can strip you of experiencing the joy of the Lord. Isaiah 29:19a (NLT) “The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord.”  Isaiah 58: 10-11 (NIV) “And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.  The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

How do we get our joy back?

Do you want the pleasure of joy back in your life?  Then start by spending time with God and His Word.  Spend time in the presence of the Lord.  Repent of sin and thank God for what you have.  Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV) “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

It might not be easy to be joyful when things are tough.  And therefore, Paul goes on, in the very next breath, to tell us how to do that.  Here’s the ‘how’ of being thankful when life is tough: Philippians 4:8-10 (NIV) “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice.  And the God of peace will be with you.”

How do we get thankfulness happening in our hearts, when it’s hard?  We think about all the good things that God has done and is doing.  Thankfulness is a heart attitude that sets us free from the burdens of today and releases us into the love and the faithfulness of God.  Thankfulness takes us to gratitude.  Gratitude is shown in actions.

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)

We need to express gratitude and that’s where praising God comes in.  There is nothing so uplifting and empowering as laying down our lives before God and praising Him and worshipping Him.  Ephesians 5:20 (NIV) “Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Psalm 150:6 (NIV) “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

Acts 16:22-26 (NIV) “The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.  After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.  When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.  At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

What happened when Paul and Silas gave praise to God?  The power of God was unleashed.  The prisoners were set free.  The guard and all his family came to know Jesus.  The other prisoners were no doubt also impacted by the event.

God doesn’t seem invested in our short-term happiness.  God wants to fill us with His abiding joy, forever.  Every moment of every day, especially when we’re in chains, especially when we’ve being beaten, or when we don’t feel happy.  It’s in those places that God wants us to experience His joy, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.  John 16:22 (NIV) “So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

Go and celebrate

In conclusion, back to Nehemiah.  Israel has not long returned to Jerusalem following a 70-year exile in Babylon as slaves.  Jerusalem was destroyed.  The nation needed to rebuild the wall that surrounded the city to protect them from attack.  For over 3 years, they slaved away to build this wall by hand.

Nehemiah 8:10 (NLT) “And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared.  This is a sacred day before our Lord.  Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

Remember and celebrate the goodness of God in your life.

We need to celebrate as a way of life.  When you think about it, no matter what is going on in our lives just, we still have a lot worth celebrating.  Nehemiah 8:10 tells us to go and celebrate what God has done for us.  One of the reasons I think that there is so little joy in our lives, is that we simply don’t celebrate enough of the goodness of God in our lives.  When we celebrate God and all that He’s done for us, when we remember the goodness of God, on the good days and the bad ones, life changes.  The happiness that seemingly deserted us in the dark times is replaced by a joy that never leaves us.

God desires that we walk in His joy when we’re under fire because then we will discover His strength.  His joy is the path to His strength.  Romans 15:13 (NIV) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You are the source of joy.  I know joy doesn’t depend on my circumstances but on my relationship with You.  Help me to focus on You.  Help me to see the good in my life, even when things seem tough.  Help me to be grateful for all that You have done for me and is still doing for me.  Help me to share Your joy with others. In Jesus name, Amen