Nehemiah 8:10 “Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Today's episode reminds us where our strength comes from. It reminds us that even when we are struggling or sad, we can find joy in the Lord! Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength
Nehemiah 8:10 “Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The theme for mentoring this month is Joy in the suffering. Several bible verses came up while researching this topic. I had already written at least one episode about most of them. However, I had not covered this verse yet. Right before this verse, Ezra the priest and scribe had gathered all the people together so he, along with the Levites and the governor, Nehemiah, could read the law of the Lord. All the people wept when they heard the words of the law. This is where our verse for today picks up. “Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
I decided to go to the Enduring Word Bible Commentary as I wasn’t quite sure what this verse meant. I wasn’t quite sure why the people were crying when they heard the words of the Law. This is what I found on the Enduring Word Bible Commentary page, “All the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law: The word of God was doing its intended work. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us two things that the word of God is profitable for: reproof and correction. Sometimes it hurts to be reproved and corrected, and these tears were evidence of some of that pain.
b. Do not mourn nor weep: Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites did not want the people to mourn, even though it is a good thing to be sad under the conviction of the Holy Spirit through the word of God. Yet if the sense of conviction is greater than the sense that God is doing a good and holy work, then tears are not good.
Our knowledge of our sin should never be bigger than our knowledge of Jesus as our Savior. We are great sinners, but He is a greater Savior.
Therefore, the joy of the Lord is your strength – even when you are being convicted of sin. When we are convicted of sin we know that God is doing a work in us, so we can be glad and take joy.
c. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength: The people felt sad because they were aware of their own sin. But they could walk in joy because God was doing a great work. Our emotions are not beyond our control; we can do God’s will even when we don’t feel like it.
They didn’t want the people to be sad because even though they may not have been perfect in carrying out the law, it is ok. God is still with them. Those in charge wanted them to know that it is good to stop everything every now and then and remember the law. It is good to stop and examine your behavior and how you are living, and see if it is in accordance with how God wants you to live. However, if it isn’t, they didn’t want them to be sad and to focus on how much they were messing up. They wanted the people to focus on how great God is and how, no matter how much we mess up, He can still redeem us.
The same is true for us. It is important that we examine our behaviors, the way we live our lives, and how we treat others, to see if we are living according to the Lord's will. Are we following His commandments? Are we loving Him above all else? Are we loving our neighbors as we love ourselves? If we aren’t, what should we do? We should bring it to the Lord. We can apologize for getting off course again, and then let Him know how sorry we are, and then we can just try again. God does not expect us to be perfect. He knows we will mess up. He knows we won’t always get it right. He is ok with that as long as we always repent and turn back to Him!
Let’s look at the aspect of joy in this verse. This verse said, “For the joy of the Lord is your strength.” How is the joy of the Lord our strength? In this verse we can find joy in the Lord because He always redeems us. I love when it said in the commentary that, “Our knowledge of our sin should never be bigger than our knowledge of Jesus as our Savior. We are great sinners, but He is a greater Savior.” This is such a great reminder that no matter how bad our sin is, our Savior is greater than it. No matter how bad we have messed up, Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross still covers it. We can take joy in the fact that there is nothing we can do that is not covered by Jesus’s sacrifice. It is ok to be sad that we have hurt our relationship with the Lord. It is ok to be sad that we think we might have let God down. However, we can’t stay there. We need to then find the joy that God has given us by sending his son to make up for our sins. God sacrificed His only son so that he could repair the closeness that Adam & Eve lost. This is something we can celebrate. This closeness is something to be joyful over.
Another thing I love that the commentary said was, “Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength: The people felt sad because they were aware of their own sin. But they could walk in joy because God was doing a great work. Our emotions are not beyond our control; we can do God’s will even when we don’t feel like it.” This is something we all need to know. Our emotions are not beyond our control. We get to decide how we feel. In the moment, we can’t always control our emotions. For instance if you see something, you might instantly feel something. For instance, when you see someone acting a certain way, you may get upset. That first reaction/emotion, you may not be able to control. However, you can control if you want to keep feeling that emotion or not.
You get to decide what emotions you are feeling based on what story you are telling yourself. For instance, I could be sad about what is going on with my son right now, or I could be grateful because he is getting the help that he needs. Or I could be both. I get to decide. The same is true for you with whatever you are going through. You get to decide how you will feel. Will you find your strength in the joy of the Lord, or will you wallow in your misery? Will you turn to the Lord and repent, or will you sit in your shame and let it eat at you? The enemy does not want us to know that we get to decide how we will feel. He wants us to just sit there and listen to all he is whispering in our ears about how things won’t ever get better. He wants us to believe that if God wanted us healed, he would have done it already. If God wanted to lift us from this place, He would have. The enemy wants us to believe our case is too far gone.
The enemy is a liar. He doesn’t know what God’s plan is any more than we do. He does not realize the importance of our thoughts. If he can persuade us to spend more time worrying about the “what ifs” rather than focusing on the joy of the Lord and all that God can do, he will have won the war for our hearts and minds. He knows that if we're listening to him, we're letting him steal our joy. Joy in the suffering is possible, but only when our focus is on the Lord and all that good He is doing, even if we can’t see it. The joy in the Lord is our strength because we can always find joy in the Lord, even when all seems lost. We won’t always be happy, but we can always have joy.
Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you and we ask you to be with us in this hard time. Lord, please show us how to have joy in the hard times. Please help us to focus on you and all you are doing for us. Please help us to be grateful in the hard times. Please help us to know Jesus’s sacrifice was enough to cover all we have done and will ever do. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in January 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, my blessings are with you. I don't give you just human happiness. I give you so much more. My blessings in your joyful moments and when you are in sorrow. My blessings when you struggle and even when you feel lost. I am with you with my blessings.”