May 7 + Nehemiah 8:10

 

The joy of the Lord

is our strength ...

Nehemiah 8:10

 

Wherever there’s a blank below, insert the word “me.”

 

·         The joy of _______ is my strength – Neh 8:10

·         Rejoice in ______ always. Again I will say, rejoice! – Phil 4:4

·         May my meditation be pleasing to ______, for I rejoice in ______. – Ps 104:34

·         Let the hearts of those who seek ______ rejoice. – Ps 105:3

 

How does that make you feel?

 

Now do the same thing, inserting your name wherever there’s a blank ...

 

·         This is the day that ______ has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! – Ps 118:24

·         Do not fear ... Be glad and rejoice, for ______ has done great things! Joel 2:21

·         Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before ______ , for ______ comes to judge the earth – 1 Chr 16:33

·         With joy [all the people] celebrated ... because ______ had made them joyful – Ez 6:22

·         Let those who desire deliverance shout for joy ... and say forevermore, “Great is ______.” – Ps 35:27

·         My soul ... sings for joy to the living ______. Ps 84:2

·         Declare this with a shout of joy ... “______ has redeemed [us].”– Isa 48:20

·         ______’s words became a joy to us and the delight of our heart – Jer 15:16

·         When ______ restores the fortunes of the people, Israel ... will rejoice. – Ps 14:7

·         Be glad in ______ and rejoice. Shout for joy, all you upright in heart. – Ps 32:11

·         Let the righteous rejoice in ______ and take refuge in him. – Ps 64:10

·         ______ is king! Let the earth rejoice! – Ps 97:1

 

Alright ... alright ... this many examples was definitely overkill. (And surely you noticed that you should have substituted “the Lord” for every blank line.) But I wanted you to see how closely -- and how frequently joy stems from being God-first. (And these are just a few of many, many examples!)

 

Here’s the question: How did these corrupted quotes make you feel?

 

I know … maybe you laughed at a few. (Some were admittedly absurd.) But ultimately it’s not a laughing matter. Me-first is how too many of us – at least on an unconscious level – live too much of our daily lives.

 

The first sin in creation was the serpent telling Eve, “Eat of this fruit and your eyes will be opened and, then, you can fill-in all of the blanks with your name instead of God’s.” This same sin was at the height of the Tower of Babel. Mere mortals were essentially saying, “One more floor, and we’ll reach heaven itself. And then our names will be equal to God’s.”

 

Do you admit those motives on a conscious level? Probably not. But subconsciously, don’t we constantly pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps and prefer to control our own destiny?

 

As Christians, we should learn a better way of discovering “joy” than me-first and selfishness. The real step to joy is spelling J.O.Y. with a J first.

 

J.O.Y. is:

(J)esus first.

(O)thers second.

(Y)ou third.

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who spells “joy”

J. O. E.

(Jesus, Others, Ed)