Joy and Strength (part 2)

Since my last post, I haven't stopped thinking about this beautiful connection between the Joy of the Lord and Strength. In my first post, I shared scriptures that connected delighting in the Lord, His Salvation, and His Word, to strength. The scriptures described the connection with such beautiful illustrations: 

• Nehemiah encourages the Israelites: "The Joy of the Lord is your strength"; your fortified defense against sin and strength to obey.  

• God is our salvation and song: deliverance, victory, and object of praise. He is like a spring of water that we joyfully draw from.  

• Our delight in God's word is like being a tree planted in streams of water that forever cause the tree to live and bear fruit.   

All of these illustrations cited, were from the Old Testament. When you look at the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament continually points to the arrival of Jesus Christ, our Hope, our Light, and our Salvation. Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promises, in the Old Testament, to His people (the Jewish nation) and to all the nations of the earth. 

We now live in the New Testament age. Christ already came to earth, died on the cross, and rose again. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised His disciples He would send the Holy Spirit to them. The Holy Spirit would point them to Truth and be their Helper.

This same promise is ours today! When we believe in Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we are forgiven of our sins, justified before God the Father, adopted as a son or daughter of God, AND given the Holy Spirit. AMAZING! 

I mentioned in my last post that one of things the Joy of the Lord is, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. (Galatians 5:22-23)

 The joy of the Lord is joy for who He is, all He HAS done and all He CONTINUES to do in us through His Holy Spirit!

"but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

"Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:15-16,19)

God came to us first. In our sinfulness, He loved us and gave The Way for us to have a relationship with Him, once again, through faith in Jesus Christ.

"But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (2Corinthians 3:16-18)

Freedom: freedom from the dominion of corrupt desires, so that we do by the free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires

Glory: preeminence, excellence

Beholding: to show in a mirror (the glory of Christ which we behold in the gospel as in a mirror from which it is reflected)

Transformed:  we are changed into the same image (excellence that shines in Christ)

By God's grace, the veil of unbelief is lifted as we turn to the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord empowers us to live obeying God and not our own corrupt desires. Our eyes are opened to the excellence and preeminence of the Lord. We behold His glory and we are transformed. Our lives change, reflecting Jesus' character. This is the work of the Spirit.

The connection between the Old Testament and the New is Jesus Christ. We are able to behold God because of Him and we are able to behold the fullness of God in Him.

The beautiful connection between joy and strength is so soul-satisfyingly rich in these passages.

As we respond and turn toward the Lord, by His Spirit, we are able to see Him, understand who He is, and what His character is like. His Spirit works in us producing Spiritual fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

As we yield to the Holy Spirit, He continues to produce His fruit in our lives. The fruit expands and grows in maturity and strength. 

Two characteristics of the Holy Spirit's fruit in our lives are love and joy.

As our love for the Lord grows, our desire to behold Him will grow; Our desire to gaze into the Gospel, into God's Word, into Truth Himself, will grow.

As our joy for the Lord and in the Lord grows we will desire more of Him!

God promised in the Old Testament that He would send the Holy Spirit to dwell within His people so that His people would have a new heart and would have the strength to obey His Word.

"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11:19)

God kept His promise. 

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." (John 6:63)

Gives life: by spiritual power to arouse and invigorate, to give increase of life

So we see in the New Testament an even more glorious connection between joy and strength. The connection between delighting in the Lord and strength remains, but we have been given the Holy Spirit who works in us to joy and to love the Lord; He gently draws us to behold God's glory. The Holy Spirit also gives life, spiritual power that invigorates us and arouses us to live our lives in response to the Lord. WOW!

Look at this beautiful connection:

God the Father loved us and gave, Jesus Christ suffered, justified us and sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit bids us to behold God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit works in us to produce love for God, first and foremost, and joy in God; He is the Life giving power. 

 The work of the Spirit draws us to behold God, at first, and it is the  work of the Spirit that draws us to continue beholding.

 We gain joy, as we behold Him and we gain strength from Him. 

He is the source from which joy and strength, independent of earthly circumstances, flows.

We are transformed to reflect the One we behold.

"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed"  

Blessings,

Amy