The Joy of the Lord Is My Strength

“For the joy of the Lord is your strength.”  Nehemiah 8:10b

One day last week I was working on some stuff around the house.  It was my fall break and when I get a break I usually do something around the house.  I am undertaking painting the interior of our home.  That’s a big project, but I’m up for the task.

Every day I praised the Lord that I am able to hold the paintbrush, climb up and down on a stool, bend my knees to load my brush with paint, and pick up the paint can to pour new paint into a tray.  The Lord healed me from arthritis just over a year ago.  Not a day goes by that I am not grateful for the small things I can now do without pain.

One day, I allowed my thoughts to drift to yucky things, difficult things, and honestly painful things.  After a short while, I was tired.  I didn’t have the stamina to keep going.  I finished the door I was painting and decided to call it a day.

All day I couldn’t shake the tired feeling that I felt.  I took a nap thinking maybe I didn’t get enough sleep the night before.  But I woke from that nap feeling exhausted.

That night I was reminded the “joy of the Lord is my strength.”  When my thoughts drifted to painful memories I had lost my joy and in losing my joy I lost my strength.

What a great reminder of how important it is to think on things above.  I repented of my thoughts with the Lord.  It’s not wrong to remember a painful time, but it is wrong for me to dwell there, to pitch a tent so to speak and set up camp.

The next day, as I was painting again, I spoke aloud to myself, “Think on things above.”  Those painful memories tried to bring me down again, but instead I chose to think about something else.  Specifically, I chose to think on the joy of the Lord and the beautiful gift of healing that He gave me.

I write this to encourage you to be mindful of what you are thinking about.  Put your mind on things above and watch your strength soar.