Without Joy, what do you have?

“Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
(Nehemiah 8:10)

Do not sorrow.
Why?
Because the joy of the Lord is your strength.
What is the joy?
Joy is a personal ongoing love-filled relationship with Jesus Christ.
And this is my strength how?
You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Without Christ, without the joy:
You can do nothing. You are aimless, disobedient.

 You follow a path of selfishness that you believe is realistic and true and deserving.

 You are self-centered. Whatever makes you happy is all that is important.

 You look at your life and your loved ones from your perspective.

 You do not seek restoration because you see nothing that needs to be restored.

 You look elsewhere for completeness. You cannot find it with your spouse so you find someone else who will provide pleasure for a moment. When the pleasure has died, you move on.

There is no love.

 You believe love is not enough to keep you committed to the one you professed in marriage to love until death do you part.

Without Christ, without the joy:

 How you feel at the moment is all that is important. It is all about you. No one else.

 You develop a taste for alcohol. It feels good going down and it removes inhibitions.

 You do not have a care in the world. If it feels good, do it.

 “This is me. This is who I am.”

 You don’t care what others think of you. But worse than that, you don’t care what you think of yourself.

 You will do whatever it takes to make you happy.

 You will destroy your life, the lives of your children, your spouse

 You will hit rock bottom. At some point you will reach a place where you can’t go any further in the hole you have dug for yourself.

Perhaps then,
You will look up and seek the God you refuse to acknowledge.

 You will cry out for mercy and accept the eternal gift of JOY He offers.

      1. Recognize sin

 “Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your loving kindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.” (Psalm 51:1-2)

    2. Confess sin
“I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah” (Psalm 32:5)

.  3. Receive forgiveness
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1-2)

.   4. Experience joy
“Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;
And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Psalm 32:11)

(c) Cathy Orrick Luders

June 18, 2014