The Joy of the Lord- Righteous Joy- THURSDAY

Some of you might ask why I defined the word rejoice, for everyone knows it.  I did so for the scripture above says that the people were "rejoicing."  This is obvious.  What is not obvious is that the word rejoice is an expression of joy,and we forget this, or confuse it.  A rejoicing person has to have joy at the root, or it is likely only happiness being felt.  Real joy, spoken of in the scripture above is called a Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians.  Remember what it says?  The Fruit of the Spirit is, love, joy, peace, etc.  The reason I wanted to define the word is to make a case about one of those ditties we've heard which says, "happiness is manmade, but joy is God made."  I have a ditty of my own I would like to give.  Here goes:

In Galatians 5 we see joy is a "fruit" of the Spirit.  This is the way the Spirit is.  The Holy Spirit is joyful.  When we are right with Him in the abiding relationship that Jesus speaks of, we have His joy in us.  Note it is not our joy,but His joy that we have.  That is why we must look at delighting God with our life to be our mission, for when he delights in us, we share His joy and He strengthens us.  What does this result in?  A whole lot of celebration.

In the story in Nehemiah, we see God's people are now right with Him again.  They had been exiled, but their exile was now over.  At this particular time, they had a right standing relationship with God, for they went to Him with tears of repentance and brokenness.  This is where the Old English wordrighteous originated.  It is misused a lot now to describe tattoos to cars, lawful and ethical behavior, to being clean cut and of good character.  But all of those examples do not describe being righteous.  We are righteous only by being in right standing with God, and the people in Nehemiah's day found it.  What was the result?  Joy!  Joyful!  Rejoicing!  This is the real thing and the only way we get it.

Those exiles and their offspring would hang in there for the next few hundred years until the real Righteous Maker came to them.  Theirs was a waiting time for the Messiah, and He came a little over four hundred years later.  I'm sure they were holding their breath hoping they would not blow it as they had done before and be exiled again.  I'm sure many of the traditions and guidelines and Pharisaic rules for righteous behavior originated in this period to keep the people in check.  Unfortunately, the rules turned to legalism and far from the heart of God.  You see, we cannot legislate or regulate righteousness by rules and regulations.  It has to come individually from our heart, as we are connected to God through Jesus Christ.  The Pharisees kept the rules, but their hearts were corrupt.  That is why they misunderstood Jesus when He came to them.  His form of righteousness was not their form, and therefore He didn't measure favorably with it.  But here is the bad news for them and the good news for us.  The Pharisees could not achieve righteousness through their attempts or methods.  None of us can. That's the bad news.  The good news is through Jesus we are made righteous, by His righteousness.   This is the only way that mankind can have a permanent, right standing relationship with God.  It comes only through Jesus.

In the same way, the only way we can have the joy of the Lord in our life, which becomes our strength, is through Jesus.  This is the Good News of redemption, abiding in Christ, and experiencing the Fruit of the Spirit.  This is where God's joy originates, is transferred, and is enjoyed.  Oh, by the way, there is also a fruit from His joy.  It is called rejoicing.  That is what happened to the people that day with the restoration of Israel, and it can happen for you too.  They rejoiced, and it awaits all of God's family today, as well.  Don't settle for anything less than the joy that God wants you to share in.  Nothing can compare to it.