Nehemiah 8:10 NLT

"Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!"

Today, like in the days of Nehemiah there is a sorrow, a sadness and dejection that seems to affect us all. In Nehemiah’s day the people had lost the “joy of the Lord”. We have as well. The people were under constant threat from their enemies as they embarked on rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem. It was so intense that they would work double shifts to complete it. Half the day they would work, and the other half would keep guard for those working. You can imagine the intensity and pressure of the situation. All which lead to Nehemiah’s statement, “Do not sorrow, for the Joy of the Lord is our strength.”

Today you may feel the pressure of life closing in, that sorrow that grips your soul. The constant and relentless trials, family pressure, work, relationships, or just the weight of all that is going on in our world today. Like the people of Nehemiah’s day, you might be ready to give up and run away just to get out from under the stress. Your strength is all but gone and you don’t know what to do.

The answer is found in the strength that comes from joy. It’s not a “joy” in going through the trials, but a “joy” in knowing the one who leads you through the trials. Let me say that again. Joy is not in going through trials but knowing the one who leads you through the trials. Paul said in Romans 15:13, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” You and I have HOPE! When we understand and put to practice this idea that our hope lies in God alone… the natural outcome is joy and peace.

We can learn a valuable truth regarding joy in an encounter Jesus had with his disciples in Luke 10:20. Jesus said, "do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." The disciples were so excited that the spirits were subject to them. But Jesus knew it would be short lived. The joy they had in the moment would not last. Jesus wanted them to learn true joy. True Joy that we can have in every circumstance, is to know “your name is written in heaven”. That should give us joy, beyond joy.

Paul said in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice!” Joy is an outcome of rejoicing. We can rejoice that our names are written in heaven! No one can change this, not even our circumstances. We too can say with Nehemiah, “the Joy of the Lord is our strength.”

In Nehemiah, the people were instructed to celebrate with feasts and share gifts. We as the church should be celebrating that our names are written in heaven. We should be giving the lost and the hopeless rich food and sweet gifts of hope that we have found in Jesus our savior.

The world needs to see true joy. You and I have access to it. The question is, will we live in it. No matter what the future may bring we can have joy because our names are written in heaven!