Joy

“Why is the devil after your joy?” Pastor Mark asked Sunday morning. He answered it with, “He wants to steal your strength.”

 

Nehemiah 8:10 is a commonly quoted passage from the Bible and one Pastor used in his sermon. “The joy of the Lord is your strength…”

 

It stands to reason that if joy is where your strength is housed, then to steal your joy, one would steal with it, your strength. How much weaker are you when you’re depressed or just feeling lifeless, than you are when you stir up the joy that’s within you?

 

Joy is not happiness. Happiness can surely stir up your joy, but your joy is not dependent upon your happiness. To quote Pastor Mark again, “Joy is not dependent on your circumstances.”

 

Oftentimes we need our joy to be bold when circumstances are at their worst.

 

My friend, Robbie Iobst, writes a Joyvotion weekly. She recently published a book of them, called Joy Dance. You can be added to the list of many she emails weekly with her Joyvotions, by letting her know you’d like to receive them. (Click on her name for her email address or click on the book title for information on the book.)

 

Joy is too important to procrastinate about it. You need it now; and it’s only given by God. It’s there – in your heart, right now. Reach in and grab some. Bring it out and wear it like a garment. (Isaiah 61:3) Tear off that old spirit of heaviness and drape yourself with joy. It’s a choice.  

 

If you’re walking around carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, you’re choosing to. Picture yourself before God’s throne and place your burdens at His feet. Let them go. He can do more with them than you can anyways. We cannot allow those burdens to drain us of our joy – because then we are drained of the strength we need to make it through the next minute or hour, or coming days. Without the strength found in our joy, we cut our lives short.

 

Choose joy. Choose it now.

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say Rejoice.” – Philippians 4:4 (KJV)