The Joy of the Lord is My Strength

Are you familiar with the scripture verse in Nehemiah 8:10 that says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength”? My guess is most of us have heard it – and have even quoted it while going through hard circumstances. But have you really understood the impact of this verse? I received an entirely new understanding of it today during one of my classes. And I’d love to share what I’ve learned with you – you’re life may never be the same after you finish reading this! Are you ready? Here we go!

Today I was reminded that sometimes joy is a choice as I listened to our guest speaker in our Healing – Kingdom Foundations class. Joy is also a fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23). Our guest speaker, Christina, told us about an amazing experience she had while she was on a mission’s trip seven years ago. There’s no way I can capture her story as she told it in full detail, but I’d love to share parts of it with you. During her devotions one morning she was singing scriptures back to God because her Mp3 player battery had died. While she was singing the scriptures, God showed up and she started laughing uncontrollably for quite a long time. I’m talking more than an hour at least. There was nothing funny happening – she was just consumed with the goodness of the Holy Spirit and laughter was the result. Someone came to her and asked her to pray for a woman to be healed from an ailment. She had no idea how she would pray because she couldn’t do anything but laugh! But she went to the woman and faithfully placed her hand on the woman while still laughing and immediately the woman was healed! This made Christina laugh even harder because she’d never seen someone be healed by simply being laughed over. Laughter released the goodness of heaven and with the release of the goodness of heaven, healing came! Since then, she’s seen many people be healed from various illnesses – including cancer, injuries, and even one who was on his death bed - just by being laughed over. During today's class we heard a testimony of a lady who had lung cancer and someone laughed over her. Before anyone laughed over her, she was at a pain level of nine. As she was laughed over the pain level continued getting less and less until it was at a level one! Incredible! Today several people were healed during our class from various thing including migraines, knee pain, and a hip injury - and all we did was laugh over them. God is so good! Not only that – but He’s always in a good mood – ready to love on His precious children – you and me.

I don’t know why this is such a surprise to me – after all being healed through laughter is Biblical. Proverbs 17:22 says, “a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.” Good medicine, huh? Christina asked us a great question – why don’t we simply take a pill of joy in the morning before we take any other pills? When she came back from her missions trip, life wasn’t always easy. Bills had to be paid and invariably other tough situations arose. After having that encounter with God and fully experiencing joy, she was asking God what that meant for her life when things got tough. I should mention here that prior to this joy encounter with God, she wasn’t a very happy person. In fact, her kids wondered who this new woman was when she got home. So she contemplated how she was going to steward this gift of joy and realized that joy is a choice sometimes. It doesn’t have to be based on your feelings. In the midst of pain, there can be joy. In fact, laughter releases serotonin which actually gives relief to pain.  Think about that next time you stub your toe – and laugh.  The bottom line she came to was your circumstances don’t have to dictate where you live. When we’re looking at things through God’s perspective, everything changes.

So – let’s bring this down to practical life. What circumstances in your life are getting you down, discouraged, and grumpy? Is it bills you can’t afford to pay, poor health, strained relationships, all of the above or something entirely different? What if we laughed over the situation? Christina decided to do just that one day. After choosing to laugh, she ended up laughing for two hours! Immediately after that she noticed her circumstances shifting. She started seeing answers to her prayers. She realized she had accomplished more in those two hours of laughing than she had ever done in eight hours of fretting and stewing when she thought she was “praying”.  Her default button had once been tears and fretting – now it’s laughter. And how does she steward that? She chooses joy even when she’s not feeling like it. She chooses to laugh at the enemies schemes. One of her spiritual mothers gave her this insight – joy is not a language the enemy understands. Think about it. If we were to start laughing at every speed bump and stumbling block that were thrown our way, the enemy would be quite confounded as to why we’re responding in such a joyous way. I don’t know if I would have thought of joy as my first weapon when it comes to the enemy – but it’s looking pretty good now that I’m more aware of its power.

Let’s go back to the first scripture I shared with you, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” My “AHA” moment came today when Christina said this, “If the enemy steals your joy, he gets your strength.” Whoa!  Been feeling tired  and weak lately? Hmm…maybe it’s time to check our joy meter. And if we’re running on empty, let’s get that joy meter going over and above the fill line!

So what’s your default button when hard things are thrown your way? I know that as of this morning my default button was to get annoyed or even turn to tears. But as of tonight and this day forth, I’m choosing joy even when I don't feel like it. Why? Because I have a good Papa God who’s always in a good mood, who loves me and who loves to give His kids good gifts. He loves to have fun with His children. He’s come to give us fullness of life – fullness of joy. I don’t know about you, but I certainly want to receive that gift! Who wants to join me? Do you know how to laugh if you don’t feel like laughing? Repeat after me:

Ha! Ha! He! He! Ho! Ho!

Come on – say it out loud – you know you want to. Nobody’s looking – and if they are you can have a big laughing party. It’s fun! Repeat until the laughter bubbles forth naturally. Still not feeling it? Just ask God to release the goodness of heaven over you and let the laughter come forth. It will happen – trust me…better yet, trust God!

Journey To Cali: Part Five

I do believe it’s way past time to bring this little series home! I’ve been a little side tracked with this thing called homework. But today, I’m determined to wrap up this little journey for you!

My next stop after Laramie was Elko, NV. There’s really not much in Elko – but it did have a few hotels and it was a good stopping point especially considering there was a pool and hot tub waiting for me at my chosen hotel. There’s really no way I can tell you every detail of this day trip – so I’m choosing to hi-light three points of interest.

1)      While at a rest stop I realized it was a part of Bear River State Park. As I looked around I saw this – and it made me laugh!

2)      The whole journey to Cali held beauty but I found that my vote for most regal mountains were the ones surrounding Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of them. The mountains around Tahoe Lake rank right up there with the Salt Lake City Mountains for splendor. It’s a tie in my book.

3)      After passing through Salt Lake City I entered into the Salt Flats.  This stretch looked like white beach sand with desert shrubs sprinkled throughout. It’s pretty much a dessert and there’s not much on this stretch of I-80 except for this random abstract artistic sculpture called Metaphor: Tree of Life. There are no restrooms or amenities nearby, not even an exit to see this piece of artwork. The only thing you can do is stop, read the plaque that’s there, and snap a few pictures – although it’s technically illegal to do so! It wins the most random thing I saw award.

My final day on the road encompassed a little respite at Lake Tahoe! But before I excited Neveda, I got another good laugh from this little sign outside a restroom at arrest stop.

I’m guessing they’ve had issues with people bathing at the rest stop although it’s beyond my imagination as to how someone would bathe very successfully let alone want to in such a public area where the only amenities are a sink and a toilet. Hmm. Anyway take the sign out of context and it sounds like a ridiculous statement – one that gave me a good little laugh.

Lake Tahoe was gorgeous. Snow capped mountains peppered with evergreen trees encompassed the lake. The water was crystal clear albeit cold. The temperature was 75 degrees and sunny – I couldn’t have picked better weather for my visit. I only had a couple hours to enjoy the lake so I quickly ate some lunch and then parked myself at the end of a pier to just soak in the beautiful view. I’d love to go back someday when I have ample time and experience more.

I entered one of the most beautiful drives of my whole journey when I got on Route 20 North. This route entailed winding roads going up and down and around the mountains. If I was to get car sick – this is the place I would have done so. Thankfully my prayers and the prayers of many of you were answered as I was able to drive easily through this area without getting dizzy and/or nauseous. Both sides of the road were lined with pine trees for many miles. The trees were so tall, so regal looking, and so evenly lined up along the road that I felt like I was in one of those sword tunnels for royalty. It was as if I – the daughter of the King – was being welcomed to my new home. It’s a precious memory and one I won’t soon forget.

A snow covered Mount Shasta was my focal point upon my arrival to Redding. I arrived at sunset and was amazed at all the beautiful mountains surrounding the city. This photo isn't one I took upon my arrival, but it is one of the sunset in my neighborhood and will give you a good idea of the beauty that surrounds me daily.

In addition, I was shocked to see all the blooming bushes around. It looked like spring to me! I was assured by Sarah that spring is even more stunning – looking forward to that.

I was received with a very warm welcome from Sharon and Sarah that included a warm dinner! Joy continued to bubble up in my soul as I was introduced to my new home and quickly saw that it was better than I could have ever imagined. I felt at home in my new room immediately and am so thankful for that. I've really been blessed beyond measure here.

The next morning I woke up and read this from Sarah Young’s devotional, Jesus Calling. It's written from the perspective of Jesus.

“In closeness to Me, you are safe. In the intimacy of My Presence, you are energized. No matter where you are in the world, you know you belong when you sense My nearness.”

Could that devo have not been more appropriate for my first day in my new home? I think not. It’s so true too and a good thing to keep at the forefront of our hearts and minds in this culture where moving is the norm. For now, my new place has become home sweet home. I do feel a sense of belonging and that is a result of sensing God’s Presence - which happens to be very thick in this land flowing with milk and honey. I’m living it up, soaking in every moment because I know how fast time flies when you’re having fun.