JOY Cometh In The Morning

July 11, 2009 8:00AM Joy Cometh In The Morning

The words of a song ( I think it is by Ron Kenoly) keep resounding in my mind right now as I write this, “You turned my mourning into dancing again, you’ve lifted my sorrow. I can’t keep silent for the joy of the Lord has come.” Nehemiah 8:10 states “For the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Jeremiah 31:13 also states, “For I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.”
I cannot remember who it was that shared this with me what the letters of JOY stand for. Thank you Holy Spirit for bringing this to my remembrance:
Jesus
Others
Yourself
That is what JOY stands for. Just because a person goes through trials and tribulations does not mean that they choose to give up the power behind the Joy that has been placed in their heart by Jesus. That joy is there to minister to others and I find that through ministering to others somehow I am blessed. I am not quite sure how it works but I know one thing, God has been faithful and He will continue to be faithful to me.

When my Father went to be with the Lord his estate/will was a challenge. My sister and I contested it. We did not even have the right to go through my Father’s belongings and select items that we would have liked to remember him by. I did put in a request of a few items and it amounted to a small box full. I did fight for one thing and I did get it. My Father had personal license plates that stated “JOY.” I received the right to purchase them for my car. I wanted them for a witness because I truly do have the joy of the Lord and He is my strength. I kept them for probably over a year or so and then I released them. I attended a large church at the time and do you know how many times people would call me Joy? I would say my name is Kimberly. People would assume that was my name because of the license plate. I thought I purchased them as a tool to witness until the Holy Spirit arrested my heart on this one. He questioned me as to where the strength comes from in reference to the Joy. He reminded me that it does not come from the license plate but it comes from the Lord. Do not put my faith in the license plate that announces joy but put my faith in Him. After that, I released the plates and went back to regular license plates. It is not a bad thing when the Holy Spirit brings correction in your life it really is a good thing. Maybe He was able to see my heart and saw that they were purchased as a conquest of something from my Fathers estate that I was able to control? I don’t know, that is just my guess. The main thing that really counted was that I was able to hear the voice and follow the instruction. When I state that I hear the voice, it is not some loud sound. I can only explain it as a gentle guiding within me.

As people struggle with things in their lives, some they have control over and others they don’t, they cannot give up the joy that is in their heart. The joy is there to reach out to others in that persons time of need. Even in the midst of a struggle or trial that is the opportunity to reach out to as many people as you can. You truly will derive strength in it. The key to following this is to hear the small, still voice of the Holy Spirit directing you as to where to reach out. If you do not follow His direction, you will just be chasing after rainbows and pots of gold so to speak. Do you ever find the actual beginning and end of that rainbow when it appears in the sky? Even if you physically started at the beginning point of the rainbow and physically you were able to get to the other end of it, by the time you attempted to get there it would already be gone from the sky. That is where you can lose that strength that is in the joy of the Lord. Running around in your own strength and trying to make things happen of your own free will and your time frame. Let it go and rest in knowing that God is in control and it is much better to let Him work it out in His timing. So many times people want it “now” and if they had waited a few more minutes, hours, or even days what a triumph would have come to them. What about the faith of the elders that went before us? They are there in the bible to remind us of how God worked in a mighty way on their behalf in His timing.

I had to pause for a while. I heard a storm coming in. I usually would go to the lake and watch it come in. Not today, I went walking in it. As I started out it was a gentle rain and by the time I got to the open road where the fields are on both sides the hard rain came down. I got soaked even though I had an umbrella, with the wind and the rain coming at once. By the time I was heading back home the gentle rain came again. It showed me that in a storm we can choose to observe it in a safe and comfortable atmosphere like a car at the lake. Other times it is OK to go out into the storm and walk in the midst of it and actually walk through it. In either instance the final result is the rain lets up and the gentle rain comes behind the storm. It was actually quite refreshing to let the rain fall upon me even through the midst of the storm. When walking through a trial it is OK to have mourning and tears because joy does come following it. I am by far not a bible scholar. I do know stories and verses in the bible I just do not know actually the book and verse per say. I probably can distinguish between it being in the new or old testament’s. I keep hearing the words “weeping may endureth for a night but joy cometh in the morning.”