Joy in the Lord!
Deuteronomy 28:47:”Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things..”
There are unusual stuff that would yank at our heartstrings at times and distract us from deriving joy in the Lord. Caveat! Are you listening? Move away from people who are taking away the joy in the Lord and trying to replace it with joy from wrong sources. I counseled a young man to wake up early in the morning and pray, he did wake up in the morning but a friend who never otherwise visits him that early, came to his house and allured him to go with him to the gym. This young anointed man who was leading a group of colleagues and friends to the Lord got enticed with his call and went behind him like a sheep that goes to be slaughtered. Alas! Three years after that he went far away from the Lord, lost his joy, got divorced, fell into heinous sins and is totally lost now. I know not where he is now! Caveat! Let the joy of the Lord be your strength!
In the above verse, the Lord warns, ‘because of the abundance of things in your life, if you ignore God and do not derive joy from the Him, THEN, you would be destroyed says the Lord: read verse 48:” And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.” Sounds harsh, but we got to read these scriptures and be warned today!
Look all around us today, we have the working Corporate folks, planning their weekend bash on Thursday itself. On Easter, young Christian men had taken Monday off because they got drunk on Easter Sunday and the following day they needed a day off. These same people are deep into debts because of foolish financial planning, have lost their real joy and live like zombies with no hope for the future. True joy in the Lord, is to rejoice in the midst of storm! Hallelujah! We know and we know that He would come walking on the water to save us. Amen.
Apostle Paul said, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”(Philippians 4:4) What does this mean? We got to rejoice at all times: good times, bad time, uncertain time, scary time, trial time and dark time too. He is the God of all seasons! Did not James say” Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2) We live with hope in the Lord and not in the worldly system!
Friend, I type this devotion not when I am floating with joy but when my heart is broken a million times, yes, a young orphan boy who joined our Abide Angel Home and later joined our school as well, looked at me this morning and said: “I will not be coming to school from tomorrow, because he was joining work with his uncle.” I came home and hit the bed and did not get up for the next few hours, then through His Word, God comforted me and raised me. Here I am writing this message to you! Glory to Jesus! Nothing should hamper your joy in the Lord!
