Dave’s Monday Blast – May 24, 2021

Do you remember that old Sunday School song that contained that phrase “The Joy of the Lord is my Strength”? The simplicity of that statement is disarming, but the truth of the message is very powerful. I know that you would agree that JOY appears to be in short supply in this old world. However, Men of INTENTION know that even though our circumstances change…our God does not and has not. The changeless One is still in charge and very much still on His throne.

The song doesn’t say that we find strength in happiness because joy and happiness are two very different animals; joy is something altogether different from happiness. The word happiness in Latin is fortuna. This is where the English word fortune comes from. For many people, happiness truly is dependent upon their fortunes, i.e. their circumstances.

As Christians, we are not to live pursuing the fickle state of happiness, but rather, we are to live in a constant state of joy. In fact, the apostle Paul encourages us, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)

The word rejoice can best be understood as a call to “return to the source of joy.“
So, for the Christian, true joy comes not from what we experience in life but from our relationship with the Giver of abundant life (John 10:10). A story from Scripture that always brings me back to this idea of returning to the source of joy is found in Jonah 2:7: “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.” To remind yourself of his circumstances, read chapter 1 through chapter 2. Now granted, his circumstances were largely of his own doing (I could make the case that they often are), but we will agree that his circumstances had definitely robbed him of his joy. He was out of his mind with anger and disappointment with God. But, at his very lowest, Jonah knew that he had to get back into God’s presence or he would never experience joy again.

I want to continue this conversation next week by looking at some Scripture from Nehemiah, a Psalm of  David, and two passages from the Apostle Paul, one in Philippians and another from Romans.