Oct 26, 2018
By Susan Bond
“Do you love glory, Grandma?” Two-year-old Reagan’s big blue eyes were shining. The dark clouds forming around my own eyes totally dissipated. I was standing over her small form lying on her bed, on the verge of landing a good sound round of something other than applause. She had given more excuses than anyone’s ever thought of for climbing out of bed, and I’d had it. Across the room, her older sister had settled nicely under her blankets, her CD player softly playing songs about Jesus. Thus came Reagan’s burst of joy. All I could do was smile and say, “Yes, Reagan, I love glory.” What power was unleashed when the joy of the Lord came bounding out of that child, power to disarm this looming grandma, three or four times her size!
Flash back to a different time, a different place, another child: Nephew Micah, just two or three years old, was running around the huge back yard at my in-laws’ chasing nothing but fresh air. Once in awhile, he would in dash my direction, unaware I was watching through the kitchen window. He would stop short, long enough to take a whiff of the flowers in the bed below. Then off he’d go again fueled with delight. “And a little child shall lead them.”
“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, Thou hast ordained strength.” (Psalm 8:2). [Read how Jesus quotes this verse in Matthew 21:16 with an important change in word choice.] I was able to grab hold of this truth around a campfire at Camp Joy when campers were challenged to suck juice from a baby bottle. There was little or no success with that. The power God places in the jaws of a newborn no longer exists in those of us who have grown teeth. So what about us who have teeth? Where does our strength come from? God gave us the answer in His words to Nehemiah: “The joy of the LORD is your strength.”
What is joy? The root definition as used in Nehemiah 8:10 is as follows: 1) make glad; 2) be joined; 3) rejoice. “Be joined” brought to my mind David’s words in Psalm 2:12 where he writes, “Kiss the Son…” Why this verse? Because in the margin of my Bible I have noted that the word “kiss” is identified with “kindle, burn—with the idea of fastening up, touch; as a mode of attachment to equip with weapons; armed men, rule.” [If I were savvy enough with modern technology, I would insert a picture of a power ranger right here.] Yes, it is our attachment to the LORD that is our JOY, and only through relying on Him can we face the battles in this life with assurance of victory. “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
“Joy comes in the morning.” These words penned by David (Psalm 30:5) came to me more than once in my preparation to write this essay. Indeed, I do prefer the light of day. (I know God made night owls, too; this way I figure He has someone praising Him somewhere at all times.) Even so, when I sit before the Lord in the freshness of dawn, it can take awhile to still my thoughts. I appreciate learning that the definition of “still” can apply to the “muzzling of a hostile animal.”
A verse commonly committed to a believer’s memory is “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). If you are not familiar with the context of this command, it is so worth looking up. The same God who inspired Nehemiah to encourage His people with His joy and who gave Word to the Psalmist to “be still and know,” meets us where we are.
When we see where Nehemiah was when the Lord set forth His recipe for strength amongst the returned exiles who were hearing His Law for the first time, aren’t we most blessed to have access to His Word day and night, both in print and ALIVE in us?
So, what do we do with His Glad Word when times seem dark and grief saps our strength? That’s the whole point, or two points. We don’t need to manufacture our own joy or strength. The returning Israelites were told, “Mourn not, nor weep…neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength….Hold your peace…neither be ye grieved.” Years ago, I learned a song from Zephaniah 3:17: “A mighty God is in your midst, a Warrior strong to save us. He will rejoice over us with joy. He will renew us in His Love. He will rejoice over us with [shouts of joy] singing.” (In the New Testament we read that the Apostle Paul not only wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” but also put those words into practice while in prison.) Rejoice! Or “rejoin” the LORD in His joyous singing!
Some time ago I carried the weight of sorrow from a break in a relationship with one very dear to me. There was nothing I could do but wait and pray. A year had gone by when I was given the opportunity to sing for my first time in Handel’s “Messiah.” The music that the composer wrote to express Jesus’ Words in Matthew 11:28-30 sent my broken heart soaring. After practicing these words, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” with lilting notes of sopranos and trills of tenors bouncing off the deep-voiced basses, while I belted out my alto, all I could say is, “This is hilarious!” —much to our director’s astonishment. Yes, my heart forgot to be sad. I could “see” and “know” God’s answer to my prayer before it actually came to pass. What joy there is in singing His Own Words back to Him. Indeed, He renewed my strength with His song.
Considering again Nehemiah’s words to the exiles, I have to think their mourning had been due to their conviction of sin upon hearing God’s Law. A chorus sung in churches these days goes, “I’m trading my sorrows for the joy of the Lord.” That’s exactly what God was telling His people to do back then. How much greater our joy should be! Yes, how much greater! We know the Savior, God in the flesh, Who for the Joy set before Him endured the cross in order to free us from our sins and infuse us with the same Power who raised Him from the dead. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
For much of my adult life, my favorite verse was “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
It was through reading Merlin Carothers’ book From Prison to Praise that I readily put it into practice. Around that same time I’d learned, during a study in the Battle Creek SDB Church, to be honest with God in my prayers since He knows how I feel anyway. I don’t have to FEEL like giving thanks; I just have to DO it. It didn’t take long to recognize the by-product of giving thanks in all things: JOY. No wonder that verse was my favorite.
Then, many years later came a full year of adjustment in my life during which joy seemed out of reach no matter how often I gave thanks. I could see then that I’d used that verse to get what I wanted—joy. Hmm! I thought, “Well, Lord, maybe I don’t have to have joy all the time.” I heard a true story that helps me along: “A young woman went to her pastor with concern that she receive particular gifts of the Holy Spirit. His advice: ‘Seek not the gifts but the Giver of the gifts.’” I take this as admonition to seek not joy but the Giver of joy. I NEVER have to look far. Emmanuel—God with us—Psalm 139.
After three attempts to write on this topic, my repertoire of inspiring thoughts increasing each time, I thought, “I could write a book about this!” Then the Holy Spirit reminded me that He already wrote 66 books. Indeed that is where all the inspiration was coming from! The Bible contains a whole arsenal of joy with which to overthrow the enemy. It’s there that we read God’s direction to set singers rejoicing at the forefront of battle. It’s there that God’s living, active Word delights and surprises us as He shows us His constant loving Presence—giving us just the right words at just the right times.
And joy does come in the morning! When I stepped out the door to see what the air felt like this early autumn morning, I was delighted to be greeted by four larger-than-usual morning glories, their purple petals wide open, and it wasn’t even dawn! WOW! Shortly after, as I settled into my special time for morning devotions, the word “glory” popped into my mind accompanied by the familiar memory that almost always joins in:
“Do you love glory, Grandma?”
