The joy of the Lord is our strength

Have you got big muscles?
I don't mean your biceps.
No spinach lectures here. No spoon feeding.
I mean your spiritual muscles!
The joy of the Lord is a source of great strength for believers.
A person who has the joy of the Lord in her heart is strong in the battles of life.

We have strength that the law does not condemn us. What do I mean? Well, God's law as revealed by Moses and prophets brings condemnation. No one could ever hope to live up to it without some failures and bobbles and epic mistakes -- I mean sin. We are all guilty of breaking it. And outside of our Savior, we stand justly condemned.  Does that seem kinda harsh? It may seem that way to us humans. It's the law of a holy God.

For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws;  (Deuteronomy 30:16a)

But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Joshua 22:5)

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. (Romans 2:12)

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20)

That's why the Jewish people had the system of sacrifice. It was only through blood that they could have remission of sin. Outside of Christ, we stand justly condemned. But there "is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) Now, this does NOT mean that we can live licentiously!

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!  (Romans 6:14-15)

Instead, it means that when we realize how far we fall short of God's righteousness, we take refuge in Jesus' imputed righteousness. As the hymn says, our sins are covered by His blood. The joy of that salvation gives us the strength to stand before God in spite of our many, many shortcomings.

The joy of the Lord also gives us strong spiritual muscles against the attacks of our enemy. Satan is a roaring lion (I Peter 5:8) and an accuser of the saints (Revelation 12:10). If we think for a moment that we can defeat him on our own, the battle is already going his way. We have no hope if we rely solely on our own performance to defend ourselves from his accusations. BUT if we point to the blood of our Savior, we will not only have joy in the battle, but we'll stand firm and we'll ultimately win. Our joy doesn't come from our own level of righteousness (and that ain't much!) but rather from our being in close communion with Christ, and relying on His righteousness, strength, and mercy.

The joy of the Lord also gives us strength because we have God's promises to rely on. This is especially applicable to our world today . . . as Christians, we stake our lives and our eternities on the promises of God. If His Word fails, we are doomed. But then, His Word is NOT going to fail -- and that, dear friends, is a joyous source of spiritual strength for us!

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (II Peter 1:4)

He promised He would rise the third day.
And He did.
He's promised to come again.
And He will.
The joy of the Lord, found in God Himself, and also found in His Word, is a tremendous source of strength for us in the most trying times! In the trials of life (and of the coronavirus) we can have joy and we can have strength.
Start cultivating those muscles! Let's determine to spend more time in the Word, and more time in prayer . . . it's in knowing God intimately and in immersing ourselves in His Word that we can have joy and strength.
We'll conclude this study tomorrow.