Joy is such a wonderful thing… a precious thing to maintain once you have been blessed with it. Oh how my heart leaps for the Joy of the Lord!

Listen to this… Over the past few days, I have studied into one of my private sins, the sin of discontent. Why? This sin has dogged me time and again all my life. And since my conversion, my discontent centered around God’s apparent slowness in the things I would be glad for Him to do.

I knew this was an area of my life that I was reserving for myself, and not giving it over to the Lord. I was compelled to deal with it. This I knew and yet didn’t abide by it: Who am I that I should complain to my Maker? Can a pot say anything to the Potter?

John MacArthur’s sermon on complaining (that I listened to the past couple of days) brought me face to face with Lamentations 3:39- Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

My pride was the culprit again, doh!

And so, with the working out of my salvation, with prayer and effort, I drew close to God and He drew close to me. And anytime you draw close to God with a clear conscience, you enter into His lovingkindness, which is most certainly abounding in joy. Consequently, I was again blessed with joy!

Now watch this…

Just this morning, I read Oswald Chambers’ devotion for April 14th… discussing the sin of complaining! (See how God orders all our circumstances!) Oswald cited a verse that hit me like a flash of light…

Nehemiah 8:10b
… the joy of the Lord is your strength. 

Yes! That’s it!

Think this through with me:

1. When I humble myself and yield to the Lord, I am then dependent and “weak”.
2. This very manner of spirit I am in puts me into the right relationship with Almighty God.
3. Being intimate with God, I sense His lovingkindness.
4. With experiencing His lovingkindness, I become blessed with His joy.

Now this joy transcends all manner of circumstances, good and bad. And discontent never becomes even a momentary thought.

This joy sustains me in any trial. It all makes perfect sense.

The Lord helped me understand that His joy really is my strength! Seeing this clearly also causes me to see that my prayers for effective Christian living are being answered!

This is almost too much to comprehend 🙂

Praise be to God!
Jim