God -- My Joy, My Strength

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This is my second attempt, because I deleted the last one when trying to get it to post correctly.  I will not go through the long story;  however, I think maybe God is giving me an opportunity to write this on my heart indelibly, so I never forget.

"The joy of the Lord is your [my] strength" (KJV,Nehemiah 8:10b).

God has blessed me through the years with the innocence and expectancy of the untried, which I think of with poignancy.  Those were lovely years.  But He has also carried me through tragedies that were difficult on me and my family.  I feel uncomfortable in mentioning the suicide of a close family member, but I will.  This is a person that left indelible prints on my life and I loved her with all my heart.  Then there was the death of my beloved son-in-law and the concern for my daughter and grandson.  My son died 3 months after a terrible automobile accident;  my father-in-law died from cancer, my dad had a stroke.  All these things happened quite close together, except for the suicide.  And then there have been heartbreaking things I have experienced in the family of God.  I hesitate to mention that, because we would like our churches to be perfect, but they aren't.  However, our church is important and it was instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ, so we must love those in our church, as we would love those in our family.  I think that is why I have felt so affected by all the moves in ministry and the things my husband and I have experienced, both bad and good.  It was like ripping me from my family each time.

Ah, you must be wondering what this has to do with joy.  It sounds most depressing, but really it is not;  because, this is life with all it's struggles, stresses and strains.  As I read through the Bible, I see the seemingly eternal struggle God's people have gone through.  But the struggle is not eternal.  God has let us know that victory is in His hands, and we must rely on Him.I look forward to an eternity with our wonderful Lord and Savior,  I'm confident that I will see my loved ones again.  

Joy -- what I write now is different than last time, but the lesson is the same.

God is the joy of my strength. 

He has taken me through trials and stress that threatened to break me, but it hasn't.  Because of God, those things only served to strengthen my resolve to follow Him more, to rely on Him, and to serve Him.  If I cannot serve Him in the same ways I did in the past, because of fatigue, pain, and other physical ailments, God has shown me other ways to serve Him.  God is the joy of my strength.

This leads me to one simple conclusion:  

God is my Joy.

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