Do you have joy? Would you like to be more joyful? The goal of John 15:11 appeals to most Christians: “. . . that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” In the verses leading up to this goal, John 15:1-10, Jesus encourages believers to “abide” in him. Verse 8 encourages believers to glorify God by bearing fruit. Verse 10 clarifies even more specifically what abiding in Christ looks like: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,” a concept which John repeats in 1 John 3:24. Noticeably absent from these verses is any mention of happy circumstances. Yet John 15:11 explains that our joy will be full if we follow these encouragements.
The last clause of Nehemiah 8:10 is an oft-quoted passage relating to joy which encourages these same principles: “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” The context leading up to this statement gives us a beautiful picture of how the Israelites achieved this strength-producing joy. They had gone many years without reading the Book of the Law of Moses, and Ezra began to read. Levites joined in the effort by explaining the words so the people could understand. We may feel that an hour-long sermon is too long, but this reading in Nehemiah 8 lasted several hours; yet the people stayed. They listened. Their eventual response was grief because they had not obeyed the Law for many years, grief over the distance they had gone away from their God. That’s when Nehemiah said, “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” He encouraged them to take their new understanding and appreciation of their God and allow the resulting joy of the LORD, a joy which they didn’t possess until they remembered their God, to give them strength to celebrate the completion of the wall. Verse 12 then reads, “And all the people went their way to . . . rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them.” The following chapters of Nehemiah confirm that their understanding and desire to please God were genuine.
Big events and little situations may seem overwhelming, and life is sometimes difficult. But John 15 and Nehemiah 8 instruct us that abiding in God–learning more about him, appreciating and obeying him, reveling in who he is, and living our lives for his glory–will produce joy, joy that will give us the strength we need for the day.