Joy of the Lord is Your Strength
John Siefker
If you lost your joy it is because you gave it away…
Without the joy of the Lord, you will not have any strength to carry on spiritually of which it will reflect in your physical life. You will feel drained, beaten up, just like there is no hope - that it is useless for you to go on.
This lost of one's joy comes about because of life's burdens and circumstances, living after the flesh and for the cares of this world, taking one's focus and eyes off of Jesus, opening oneself to the lies of the enemy and such. Satan wants you to do all of these things because he wants you to have no joy. He knows than you will have than lost your strength and now you are weak, thus he can continue to attack you and devour you.
You will never have peace, the peace of God, without having the joy of the Lord in your life and this also involves one knowing Him.
Jesus said in His Word that:
"...For the joy of the LORD is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10
"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy..." Psalm 16:11
In Psalm 16:11, Jesus that He would show you the 'path of life' - the way of life. Jesus is you're everything; He is your life, your strength and so much more.
His joy produces strength - a spiritual strength which than flows over into your physical being. And His strength is needed to go throughout the day in doing all the Abba Father tells us to and to fight the good fight of faith.
You can't live off of the joy that you once had because at some point of time you have either given it away or let it go. Joy can give you strength ONLY when you possess or have it.
Have you ever noticed that there are many people that you come into contact that are down, discouraged and they are not happy but rather irritable? It is because they have either lost their joy and peace; it can also be because they do not know Jesus or they do know Jesus but they are out of spiritual alignment with Him.
By further looking at the following verses of Scripture and meditating on them, we see more of what Jesus has said:
"Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places…" Habakkuk 3:17-19
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Isaiah 12:2-3
"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." John 15:9-11
(*You will also want to read verses 1-8 of John chapter 15)
Jesus wants each one of us to be one with Him, and to be full of His joy and strength.
Beside all that the Lord has said in His Word, you may ask - how does a person renew their strength? Well this is what Jesus said in the following verses that one must do in order for it to be so:
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:" Isaiah 40:28-30
Now look at these next verses, as this is the key:
"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31
"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy..." Psalm 16:11
This "waiting upon the Lord" that Isaiah was talking about - is that of one to spend time having fellowship - talking with the Lord and being just in His Presence. The outcome for you is that you are renewed and refreshed both spiritually and physically.
So here again, once you have lost, given away or let go of your joy (the joy of the Lord), you will than feel depleted of all energy, gumption to go on, ready to give up, discouraged, depressed and such.
You have a choice, but your only real option is to get His joy back into your life. You must get with Jesus - get yourself back into alignment with Him and get your focus on Jesus and only upon Him. You than will be restored, refreshed and your joy will be renewed - and you will be ready to continue on following Jesus!
The joy of the Lord is a MUST in one's life otherwise…all else is hopelessness and despair.
To know Jesus is know & have life!
To know Jesus is know & have peace!
To know Jesus is know & have joy!
To know Jesus is EVERYTHING!
Constant abiding in Jesus & fellowship with Him - is fullness of everything one ever needs!
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Romans 14:17
