THE JOY OF THE LORD.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY SEVEN.

NEHEMIAH 8:10.    Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to the Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
The context of this verse, all the people of Israel had gathered and Ezra had read the law of Moses out to them and they began to mourn and weep as the understood the word. But Ezra and Nehemiah told them not to weep but to go home and celebrate and to share their food with those who had nothing prepared and the joy of the Lord was their strength. The word joy there means to make glad, to rejoice. So, as the children of Israel went home and celebrated over the word that they had heard that day they were strengthened. The word strength means a fortified place, a stronghold. So they would be protected in their lives as they rejoiced in God's word. So how does this apply to us today, well we must have the same attitude to receiving the word of God. Sometimes the word is not that easy for us, especially when God is bringing correction into our lives and asking us to change, but we must remember God only does it because He loves us and wants us to grow. His discipline is always for our good, we are the ones who will benefit if we accept what God is saying to us and allow the word to have its effect in our lives. The only way this will happen is as we receive the word with gladness and praise God for what He is doing in our lives. Yes I know all to well that this is not always easy. If we don't receive that word with gladness and continue to stand in it, we may find that it will be bearing fruit for a short time but then something will happen, Satan will come against us in some way and we will stumble and we will lose the word and its fruit. Jesus said to His disciples in John 15 that they must abide in the vine to bear fruit and the way that they would remain in the vine was to walk in obedience to His word, he went onto say that He had shared these things with them that His joy would be in them and that their joy would be be full. Jesus rejoices when we walk in obedience to His word, He takes great joy in our obedience and we experience that joy in our own spirits. That overflow of the joy of the Lord causes us to be strengthened spiritually. When we choice to walk in obedience to the word of God in our lives and receive with gladness what He is doing in our lives we live in His presence, Psalm 16:11; You show me the path of life, in Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand pleasures forevermore. See the word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a lamp unto our path, so as we walk in that we walk in His presence and as we stay in His presence we experience His joy. What we must understand is that His joy is not just an emotional high, but that it comes from the Spirit, Yes, there is a sense of joy as we know it but it goes far beyond that, we are aware of a spiritual strength that we may not have experienced before. So let us be encouraged to receive the implanted word of God with great rejoicing, even in the tough times, be willing to let that word do what it has been sent to do and walk in it, knowing that as we do we will be walking in His presence and that we will be strengthened spiritually and that as a result we will be able to accomplish the things that God is calling us to do.