Scripture of the Day
"The joy of the Lord is your strength." -- Nehemiah 8:10
Reflection
In 1873, a successful Chicago lawyer named Horatio Spafford sent his wife and four daughters ahead of him by ship across the Atlantic, planning to follow shortly after. The ship sank. All four daughters drowned. His wife survived and cabled him two words: "Saved alone."
Spafford boarded the next ship to meet her. As the vessel passed over the approximate location where his daughters had gone down, he went below deck and wrote the words that became one of the most beloved hymns in Christian history: "When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll -- whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul."
That is not happiness. Happiness was not available to Horatio Spafford on that ship. But joy was.
Nehemiah told the grieving crowd: "The joy of the Lord is your strength." He was not asking them to manufacture a feeling. He was pointing them to a source -- the God who had brought them back, who had sustained them through exile, who was not finished with them. That joy does not depend on what surrounds you. It depends on who holds you.
Question for Personal Reflection
What is the difference between happiness and joy in your own experience? Which one are you currently pursuing?
Action Step
Memorize Nehemiah 8:10 today. Return to it whenever circumstances threaten to define your strength.
Prayer
Lord, be my joy when circumstances offer none. Let that joy be the strength that carries me through. Amen.
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