The Beginning of Joy

Nehemiah 8:1-12 (NKJV)

Over the years, I have experienced people that I’ve counseled with say, “I just don’t enjoy my life anymore” or “I’m just not happy with my life the way it is now”. This usually occurs when someone is experiencing circumstances that they are not happy with and the circumstances don’t seem to be changing. The result is a feeling of no joy in their lives. In the scriptures today, we see the children of Israel after they had been released from a 70 year period of being in exile, but they are not happy. Even though they have been out of exile as long as they were in exile, things just aren’t good like it used to be. They haven’t been able to rebuild and get back to how they once were. Now, Nehemiah and Ezra are on the scene, helping to rebuild, to restore the spiritual conditions and regain their joy.

The question for us today is, when we are at a point of no joy, how do we begin to get our joy back?

  1. Release what sorrows you to the Lord.
    a. Your past
    b. Your pain
    c. Your personal loss
  2. Restore what strengthens you in the Lord.
    a. Your promises from God’s word
    b. Your prayer time
    c. Your personal walk with the Lord

The beginning of true Joy always begins with restoring your spiritual condition with the Lord!