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2nd Fruit of the Spirit-The Joy of the Lord is My Strength?

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Last month I proposed discussing one fruit of the spirit each month. We discussed the 1st fruit of the spirit, love, last month & discussed the question, does love demand forgiveness. http://booksbylyncote.com/SWBS/a-fruit-of-the-spirit/what-is-love ?

Now we approach the second fruit, joy.

I often hear discussions about how joy isn’t happiness so let’s not go over the well worked ground.

When I think of joy, the song I sang as a child plays in my mind. Do you remember singing: “The joy of the Lord is my strength”?

The video above is a different song than the one I sang as a child. Here are the first two verses of it:
The joy of the LORD is my strength
The joy of the LORD is my strength
The joy of the LORD is my strength
Oh, the joy of the LORD is my strength.

He gives me living water and I thrist no more
He gives me living water and I thrist no more
He gives me living water and I thrist no more
For the joy of the LORD is my strength”
(From http://gospelyrics.blogspot.com/2007/09/joy-of-lord-is-my-strength.html)

The scripture it’s taken from is Nehemiah 8: 9-10:

Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

10 Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

But what does that mean? What do you think “the joy of the Lord is your strength” means? Oh, and HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

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2nd Fruit of the Spirit-The Joy of the Lord is My Strength? — 5 Comments

  2. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I would love to win this book. My Pastor said the one thing the enemy cannot steal from you is your joy. You can allow him to have it but he cannot steal it. Knowing one is saved and Jesus is with them puts joy in your heart.

  3. Wow, after reading Kara’ s post, I have to agree with her. “The feeling that all is right in the world, even if present circumstances would lead you to think otherwise.” God does let us go through trials in life so when we emerge we find we are stronger. We(at least I) find that we then measure the next obstacle by how it measures up to the previous one(s).
    Examples of where we have been: Cancer, death, and un-employment.
    When we measured the first two with the third, the third was no big deal!

  4. Kara,
    I think you nailed it. I think many Christians discount joy, but isn’t joy a proof that God is in control and always with us?

  5. Lyn,
    That song is not familiar to me and I admit I’m stumped. I’m not sure what the verse means.

    I think joy is maybe as similar to peace as to happiness. Maybe a combination of the two. The feeling that all is right in the world, even if present circumstances would lead you to think otherwise.

    So here’s a guess – the Lord knows what he’s doing, even though we mostly don’t. So his joy would make us doubly sure that everything is right in the world and give us strength to carry on.

    That didn’t come out quite right, but I’m not sure how to word it otherwise.

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