Express your joy !

Friday April 9, 2021

Express your joy !

“It is the joy of the Lord that is your strength.” Nehemiah 8.10

CS Lewis wrote : “Stiffness and rigor too often distort Christians' relationship with God. We are trying to speak a language of holiness that rings terribly wrong. And the big losers are the simple believers or the new converts who feel lost in front of these great religious airs with which many adorn themselves, and do not know how to approach God. Joy is much more than earthly pleasure, much more than what we call happiness. Joy is the pleasure of knowing God, of enjoying His presence in us and of appreciating all the blessings with which He covers us. If the Bible provides us with the wonderful words of real life, joy provides us with the music ! If the Christian's walk is a painful and perilous ascent to paradise, joy gives us a chairlift !” Joy is the fuel God gives us to move us forward. So why then do we find it so difficult to seek more ? Maybe for the same reason that makes us feel guilty as soon as we take rest ! We think deep inside ourselves : “We are Christians, we are not supposed to have fun in this world !” But read your Bible : “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). Have you noticed that some people are able to go through the worst trials without losing their joy and enthusiasm, while others keep wearing burial mines without having experienced a tenth of the suffering of the former ? Why this difference ? Because the former have a source from which they derive their joy every day, an inexhaustible source that circumstances cannot dry up. Nehemiah said that the joy of the Lord was our strength, the joy of knowing that our Lord is the Master of our life. What obstacle is preventing you from enjoying divine joy ? Find out what this obstacle is and get rid of it !

Source (His Word for Today)