Covenant Messenger Ministries

Brenda Black is the Secretary of Covenant Messenger Ministries and a gifted writer of inspirational articles based on real-life experiences.  

Please email comments to:  vqp@qwestoffice.net

~ JOY ~

     …..the joy that the Lord gives will make you   strong.  Nehemiah 8:10

      God has given us many gifts.  One of the gifts He’s given us, which sometimes is overlooked, is the gift of laughter.  Laughter is an outward expression of an inner joy and it’s contagious.  Laughter is a great stress reliever.  It calms the nerves, uplifts the spirit and brings hope.

       One of the things I really appreciate about our church is how our pastor is able to intermix humor with a serious subject.  When my son was little, I took him to the doctor because he was sick.  The doctor prescribed medication for him but told me that the medicine tasted very bad and because of the taste, a lot of children won’t take it.  To make it easier to swallow, he suggested that I give my son a teaspoon of chocolate before and after giving him the medication.  It worked like a charm.  Although the medicine really didn’t taste well on its own, the chocolate served as a special treat my son would get every time he took it, which was a great motivator for him to take the medicine he needed to make him well.  A lot of times that is how going to a church service or a bible study can be.  There are certain topics that are hard to swallow, but adding a little humor into the mix, is like adding something sweet, like chocolate, to help us digest the word, because the word is what we need to make us well.

      My son had to have surgery recently and there were four people who were going to be involved in his procedure that stopped by to talk to him.  There was a nurse, a doctor’s assistant, the anesthesi-ologist, and the surgeon.  Each one of those people had something serious to tell him but before they left, they had my son laughing.  They told a joke, or made a funny comment, but the outcome was the same – they left him laughing and that laughter helped him to approach the seriousness of the situation with strength. 

     Nehemiah says 8:10b, “and be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold.”  Another translation says it this way, ‘The joy that the Lord gives will make you strong.’

      Laughter is one expression of joy.  True joy can only come from Jesus, so that tells me that joy is a part of God and that it’s okay to be joyful. 

      I know that I need joy and I need to laugh, like I need water and oxygen.  God knows this about me and I see His gift of joy in my life not only through His gift of salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but also in the people He’s brought into my life who are the closest to me, like my husband.  I cannot count the number of times I needed a good laugh, and he knew just what to say or do to make that happen.  I also see that gift in my kids as well.  I love hanging out with them because for the most part, they are pretty happy people who laugh all of the time. 

     I have become much more intentional in seeking out ways to bring joy and laughter into my life.  Being around happy people is one way to bring joy and laughter into my life, as well as connecting with God by spending time with Him, the true joy giver, in prayer, reading my Bible, going to church and listening to and singing praise and worship songs. 

      One of my favorite Proverbs on this subject is Proverbs 17:22, “A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing.”  Another translation reads, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”  Happiness is good for us.    The ending of that proverbs gives a warning, ‘a broken spirit dries up the bones’ or ‘by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken’. 

      I think that as we grow older, keeping our joy becomes more difficult because of the unpleasant experiences and hardships we go through in this life, whether be it physical, emotional or spiritual.  We really have to fight to keep joy alive inside of us.  We have to guard our hearts.  If joy brings us strength, than surely the absence of it brings us weakness.

      So where are you at right now?  How’s your joy level?  Is it low?  Do you need to be filled?  Or are you so full of joy that you need to give some of it away?  This week I would encourage you to be intentional about the gift of joy.  Ask God to fill you and restore your joy and to help you identify joy "zappers" in your life and how to deal with them so that you can guard your heart and mind.  If you are full of joy, ask God to show you where and to whom you can sow that joy.  Be diligent and be intentional to implement joy and laughter into your life and in the lives of others every day, if you are able.  There are many gifts that God has given us and He wants us to use, let’s not neglect the gift of joy.     

(Watch for the next article to appear in this column)