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HOW TO HAVE JOY IN HARD TIMES
September 6, 2024Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10b
1. JOY COMES FROM A DEEP AWARENESS OF GOD’S GOODNESS. God is talking to people who were grieved because they realized how far they had fallen and how amiss they were from walking in God’s Word. Yet God was saying, “Hey, look don’t be grieved because the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The joy of the Lord is not a glib, lighthearted thing. This joy is deeper than happiness, which is often circumstantial. It can offset even the harshest depression. We are invited into this deep-seated life of joy emanating from the goodness of God.
2. JOY IS AVAILABLE AT EVERY POINT OF LIFE. Joy can be present even during the worst trials and heartache. Think of Jesus; He was anointed with gladness above His companions (Hebrews 1:9). Yet He was also a man of sorrows and called the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:3). The verse, “Jesus wept” is both the biggest and the smallest in the Bible (John 11:35). It is the smallest because it is only two words; The biggest, because it indicates Jesus’ depth of compassion and love when He wept at Lazarus’ tomb before He raised him from the dead.
3. JOY IS MEDICINE TO YOU. “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). So how do we get joy when hit with hard times? I want to encourage you to study what the Bible says about joy. Get a concordance and look up every joy scripture in the Bible. “Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad” (Proverbs 12:25 NASB 2020). Let the good words from God’s Word lift you out of the pit and bring you into the awareness that God loves you. He is not reluctant toward you. He desires to pour out a blessing you cannot contain (Malachi 3:10). God proved His love by sending His Son Jesus, the Messiah, to the whole world.
DAILY CONFESSION:
Today is going to be a good day! I will not be grieved because the joy of the Lord is my strength. I fill my heart with God’s Word, and those good words make me glad. I have a joyful heart today, which is good medicine for me. Today, God makes known to me the path of life; in His presence, there is fullness of joy; at His right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. (Nehemiah 8:10; Proverbs 12:25; Proverbs 17:22; Psalm 16:11).
God bless you,
Pastor Jeff Perry
grieve, verb
1. To cause to be sorrowful; distress.
2. To mourn or sorrow for.
Copyright © 2024 St. Louis Family Church, All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. “Grieve, V.” American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Harper Collins Publishers, 2022, https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=grieved&submit.x=22&submit.y=28.
