Encouragement

The Joy of The Lord is Your Strength

by Lawrence Walkup 
02/06/15
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THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH

By

Lawrence Walkup

If the joy of the Lord is not your strength, then you need to more fully understand what it is to trust in Jesus. Jesus' only requirement of us...is to trust him (John 6:29). We need to get there. Joy, a fruit of the Spirit, is a by-product of trusting in Jesus. Since joy is a direct correlation to faith, it is then an indicator of faith...like being perfected in love is a direct correlation to the absence of fear. Having great material wealth is not an indicator of faith. That's an indicator of a man not being separate from what's valuable to the world system. And if you are a rich Christian, being the real deal, then that wealth has been given to you for a purpose.

Joy is there no matter what the circumstances...unlike happiness which is based on the happenings at the moment. Happiness is fleeting, whereas joy is constant. Happiness is shallow, whereas joy is profound. Happiness is of the world, whereas joy is of the Spirit. 'The joy of the Lord is your strength' (Neh. 8:10). Strength is manisfested in confidence and in courage. Who better exemplifies those qualities than he who wrote 150 psalms...written to express the joy of the Lord in his heart.

King David, a man after God's own heart, the most courageous of all men, the very foundation of Israel, except for Jesus of course, but David was a type and shadow of Jesus anyway. The life of David was lived out in such extremes. Our lives lived out will probably, most likely, fall within those extremes somewhere...not as good...not as bad. As it tells us in Romans 15:4, we read about the life of David to bring us great hope and encouragement, inspite of what we have done. That is fantastic news! Move on from your past as the Apostle tells us in Philipp. 3:13 and move forward in the joy of the Lord, because you can, because Jesus has accomplished it all for you.