The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength

This morning I was reading through chapter 8 of Nehemiah and a verse jumped of the page and jolted my heart. I knew God wanted me to share it with my lovely wife and I did, but I began to meditate more on the verse as the day went on and what God showed me was incredible. "The joy of the Lord is your strength."

God desires that we experience His strength as we delight in His joy. That sounds so simple and yet so many times I lose sight of that. I fall victim to the business, the stress or just the general noise of life that chokes out or suffocates the joy that God desires that I delight in which would give me the strength to endure and win over these very things that seem to press in on me. The joy of the Lord gives us strength again it sounds so easy, but what is about us that does not believe this or does not live in this truth daily? I am not sure what it is for you, but for me it at times can be the trap that I am too busy doing for God that I miss just being with Him. No amount of doing will ever compare to just being, truly just being still and KNOWING that He is God.

Psalm 16:11 states this "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." God wants to lead us to the place of joy which is His presence and give us eternal pleasures that are at His right hand. That is awesome stuff and great truth that we as followers of Christ need to hold on to and baste in daily. Again, I know I am being redundant here, the joy of the Lord is your strength. As I meditated on that today here is one thing God said to me about delighting in His joy and therefore experiencing His strength...here it is. Don't miss the God moments!


I know that may not seem profound, but it encouraged me. I run almost every morning and as I head back home I see the effects of the sun rising in the east...that is a God moment...joy...strength. The same God who created that sunrise and causes that to happen daily, holds my life. This weekend my son, Max, initiated play with his sister all weekend long for the first time...God moment...joy...strength. A reminder that God is at work in my son bringing healing to his body and no diagnosis is going to trump God or rob my son of God's glory being seen in His life.

I'm telling you the list goes on and on and I know it does for you too. So here it is, yes once more, "the joy of the Lord is your strength." Did you catch that? It is your strength, not could be or it should be or even hope to be; no it is, but the fact is we must each experience this joy that leads to strength for ourselves. So my prayer for you is that today you would not miss those God moments. Just another rambling. God Bless!