The Joy of the Lord is our Strength

We stand and lift up our hands,
For the joy of the Lord is out strength.

Nehemiah 8:10b (NIV)
Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

What does this mean? I mean, I figure that what this verse is saying is that the joy that we have in God is what will give us strength. But is not the Lord Himself our strength? I think I am definitely reading too much into this. And it is not so black and white. God is my strength; how I become strong in Him, though, is by keeping my joy.

Psalm 16:5-11 says:

⁵ LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

⁷ I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
⁸ I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the grave,^a]">[a]
nor will you let your Holy One^b]">[b] see decay.
¹¹ You have made^c]">[c] known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 16:10 Hebrew Sheol
2. Psalm 16:10 Or your faithful one
3. Psalm 16:11 Or You will make

I will have joy in the Lord because I know that He counsels me, is at my right hand, will not abandon me to the grave, nor let me decay. Why not have joy in the Lord?!

Here is a story taken from the Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI) website.

Your Source of Strength

"......the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10b, KJV).

At a London train station one day, a woman was stopped by an elderly man.

"Excuse me, ma'am," he said, "but I want to thank you for something."

"Thank me!" the woman exclaimed.

"Yes'm, I used to be the ticket collector, and whenever you went by you always gave me a cheerful smile and a 'good mornin'." You don't know what a difference it made to me.

"Wet weather or dry, it was always the same, and I thought to myself, "Wonder where she gets her smile from; one can't always be happy, yet she seems to.' I knew that smile must come from inside somehow."

"Then one morning you came by and you had a little Bible in your hand. I said to myself, 'Perhaps that's where she gets her smile from.' So on my way home that night I bought a Bible, and I've been reading it, and I've found Christ. Now I can smile, too, and I want to thank you."

As you and I seek to be God's witnesses today, in dependence on the supernatural power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we should be mindful constantly of the fact that the joy of the Lord can indeed be our strength. That joy inevitably will shine on our faces, regardless of circumstances.

In the words of an anonymous poem:

If you live close to God
And His infinite grace, You don't have to tell; It shows on your face.

TODAY'S ACTION POINT: I will make a conscious effort to reflect the joy of my indwelling Lord in such a way that it will glow on my very countenance. While it is true that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, it is also true that the reflection of that joy is my responsibility. But I will go a step further. I will tell everyone who will listen about the one who is the source of my joy.

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Lord Jesus, praise be to Your Name. You are worthy and deserving of praise. I thank You that You even care about me and that You are so good that You will not let my foot slip nor will let me be shaken. Hallelu Yah. Lord, as I take away from this lesson, help me to be joyous in You and to let that joy shine in my life and on my FACE. Praise the Name of the Lord! Hallelu Yah! Hallelu Yah! Thank You Jesus. Please keep me in my stage/phase of doubt. May I be more powerful and ever stronger when I come out of it. This I boldly pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, Amen.