The Joy of the Lord

Nehemiah 8:10—“the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

I have a friend at college that I sometimes get into chats with about Bible studies. During one of these chats, he brought up the thought, “If the joy of the Lord is our strength, no wonder Satan wants to steal our joy.” 

 If we are to have the strength of the Lord, we need to protect our joy. This means we cannot allow our joy to rest in something temporal. Our joy must reside solely in Jesus Christ and God's Word. 

Joy goes beyond happiness in that it is happiness unbounded. The two are the same idea, but joy is a greater feeling than happiness. Money can buy happiness; it cannot buy long-lasting joy. The joy of Christians should come from their salvation and their walk with the Lord. It should not come from our circumstances or our possessions. 

WE MUST GUARD OUR JOY IF WE DO NOT WANT TO FALL PREY TO SATAN!!!!!!!!

We must constantly meditate on God's Word, constantly be in an attitude of prayer, constantly be thinking about how we can serve others, because true joy comes from these. Bible reading and prayer gives us a relationship with God; the more we read and pray, the better of a relationship we will have. Serving others helps us to be more like Jesus, and should that not be the goal of every Christian? So my thought today is simple, girls: Protect your joy!