Read Nehemiah 8:10b and Jeremiah 17:5-18
On a beautiful spring day in 2001 in Atlanta, I knelt beside the bed in the home of my hostess, struggling with what God wanted me to say to a large gathering of people from across the state of Georgia. My Bible was opened to Nehemiah 8:10. Somehow, I wanted to convey to the audience that, indeed, the joy of the Lord was my strength and could be theirs as well.
The past year had been an extreme struggle as I returned to Kentucky following the death of my husband in Mozambique. Life at the age of 53 was not what I had imagined it to be. I was not “supposed” to be a single mother with two children still to leave the nest. I was not “supposed” to have to go back to work, to live in the U.S., to make it on my own.
But as spring dawned in a new year, I felt renewed joy deep in my soul. The grieving (not the missing, not the loving, but the GRIEVING) had stopped. Just like Nehemiah had said, “Do not grieve; the joy of the Lord is your strength.” I was able to enjoy the sweetness of life I had known the 52 previous years.
How had it happened? How had God changed tears back to laughter? Turmoil back to peace? It was certainly not something I had achieved on my own. It had taken God, His Word, and prayer.
- God fixed my eyes on Himself. I could not do it (not ANYTHING!) on my own. I had to depend on God. Jeremiah, in chapter 17 of his book, makes it clear that we cannot gain strength from man (and that includes ourselves). Those who trust in the flesh will end up like a dried-up plant in a desert. In other words, DEAD. Those who trust in God, however, will be like trees planted near water so that their roots drink it up, making them flourish.
- God’s Word became very precious to me. I could not face the morning without my Bible and a cup of coffee. The coffee was a habit I began with marriage. The Bible had been a habit from years before. This struggle was no time to give it up. More than ever before, God’s Word fed me and sustained me. God spoke to me through it. He ministered to my grief in it. David’s thoughts in Psalm 119:103 were never truer: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”
- Soon after my husband died, I memorized I John 5:14-15: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him.” I asked and asked and asked. I truly became the persistent widow! I asked for the return of joy, and God filled my cup to overflowing. It’s bubbling in my soul!
During this COVID-19 period, you may be struggling with loss, with anxiety, with fear, with loneliness, with chaos, with confusion, and with separation from family, friends, and your faith community. But as Nehemiah would instruct you, “Do not grieve; the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Dear Faithful God, many of us are struggling with losing our joy during these days of isolation, loneliness, and frustration. Yet, You have never moved because You are steadfast and unmovable. You have not changed. You are still with us and will not leave us You are the lifter of heads. You can restore our joy. May your joy be our strength through these uncertain days. With confidence that You hear us, we are asking for it.
In the Name of Jesus, Amen!