In this crazy world it’s easy to lose focus of having true joy that only comes from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the Bible, it tells us that “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” This means that true happiness comes from knowing God, abiding in Christ, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. The joy of the Lord makes us strong, and gives us the courage to face challenges each day.
We should be making God our highest joy, but we can’t make the joy of the Lord our strength if we are also trying to make something else our strength. To have joy, we need to be continually praying, reading our Bible, and seeking the Lord each day. There are countless distractions and things to keep us too “BUSY” (Being Under Satan’s Yolk) to have time for the Lord. I continually find myself thinking, “I’ll read my Bible after I do that…”, and then I end up never reading it that day. Or, I’ll tell myself, “I can start to do to that tomorrow…”, but then I keep pushing it off another day, or longer. It can become a vicious cycle. However, the Lord is always with us, standing with arms wide open waiting for us; so be sure to take the time to draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. He is always right there by our side, so we have nothing to worry about or fear. All we need to do is make time for Him, trust in Him, and remember that He is in control.
In the Bible, Psalm 23:1-3 says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” What a beautiful sentiment, and what an amazing God we serve. God is always watching over us, He provides for us, and He wants us to live happy, joyful lives. There is nothing else and no one else who can restore our soul.
It is my prayer that we can all truly make the joy of the Lord our strength, every day. This will be difficult, as the devil is constantly working to try to shift our thoughts in a negative direction, away from the Lord. The devil will try to distract us and point out the negative, but we need to be sure to focus on the positive, knowing that God is ultimately in control. We need to recognize when this happens and ask Jesus to help us through those times. We need to take our thoughts captive, and think carefully about how we react, and focus on trusting the Lord and His promises. When we ask the Lord, he will help us, and the joy of the Lord will truly be our strength.
