Today's reading is Nehemiah 8-12
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| The Joy of the Lord is Strength. |
This is an example of what we see as the current style of church service, from behind a pulpit a pastor gives the word of God. Due to the lack of amplification and questions, they created what we would call small groups to explain what was read. This is perhaps something which the church might consider doing, find times for small groups to discuss what has been preached on Sunday.
This is all good, but an interesting note is that Nehemiah tells the people who are upset that they haven’t been obeying not to mourn over it. He tells them that God’s joy is actually their strength. What is going on here, especially in light of Jesus’ admonition that those that morn will be comforted? I actually the comforting is what is happening. The people now know they haven’t been living right and Nehemiah seeing they have the heart to change tell them to rejoice. Why? Because they are prepared to change.
God doesn’t want us to live a life of mourning, he wants to comfort us and give us joy, which will strengthen us. However, if we haven’t been confronted with the truth and mourned then I can’t help but think that God’s joy won’t be there and we will not find his strength.
Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash
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