Strength, Comes from the Joy of the Lord

What do you do when life suddenly doesn't make sense? Things you thought you knew become a mystery and you experience the devastation that truly turns your world upside down. Recently these are some of the questions I have asked myself while going through a difficult time in my life.

Whether you are going through a loss, have been waiting for a situation to change, or just life happens to feel hopeless, I want to encourage you today that in these moments of weakness God is strong in you and will give you strength. As a believer, this is readily available to us. I learned in the toughest moments of my life that I can lean not on my own understanding but focus on blessing God in the midst because even what seemed bad is working for my good.

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

I am really encouraged by this statement because there is something to having joy in the face of the storm. Not man-made, self-pushed joy but the joy that only comes from the Lord. Recently as a began to grieve over a situation taking place in my life I felt myself feeling as if I should be depressed downcast and just plain miserable, but inside of me, I knew that this wasn't the response that I needed long term.

The Holy Spirit had begun to comfort me so that I can keep going because sadness was trying to lead me to a place of helplessness when the God I serve is able to turn anything around and that the plans He has for my life are to prosper me and not to harm me. Yes the feelings that I was facing were there and I acknowledged it but I also see a way of escape instead of going into a dark place.

It was as if in the midst of rain, rays of sunshine began to peek through and if I kept being so focused on the rain being wet and cold I would miss out on the sunshine and the rainbow on the horizon. This reminds me of my recent trip to the Grand Canyon. I remember I just knew God wanted me and my sister in Christ to stop there.

So we went I was so excited because I knew he wanted us to go but when we got there it was raining, cloudy, and so cold it was still beautiful but so foggy we could barely see the Grand Canyon. This is often how life goes us expecting and expectations not being met. Yet our perspective will determine our strength at the moment (we can have God's perspective or our own). We continued to enjoy the journey even though we were both saying in our heads that we came out here for this rainy picture. What is this God?

On our way out we decided to stop again just so we can listen in on our weekly Chosen zoom meeting and just as we stopped the rain stopped sun came out and there was a rainbow right in the middle of the grand canyon. It was crazy, we were so excited and it made it even more worthwhile the wait we not only got to see the Grand Canyon but also a rainbow in the middle of it. Had we had an attitude of grief we may have turned around from the beginning or didn't finish the trip because of our disappointment.

It was only God's joy that kept us going. The joy that only the Lord provided internally that kept us hopeful in the rain. That kept us going in the midst of the unanswered questions and that kept us believing that God is awesome despite what that situation looked like so I just want you to choose joy today. Choose gratefulness in the midst of everything going wrong, choose to receive God's joy in the midst of what your feel like grieving. Trust that God has great plans for you and know it's okay to be hopeful about it even when it doesn't look like it's happening right now.