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Nov 10, 2022 18:30pm

The Joy of the Lord

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My niece stayed the night with us one weekend and we decided to play the game Heads Up. For those of you not familiar with it, you place your phone on your forehead facing the other person and as the game goes, the other person has to act out the word, like charades. The timer runs out and you see how many you got right at the end. It’s pretty fun.

However, playing with an 11-year-old can be challenging. She doesn’t yet know what all these things are. As I’m trying to act out something, I do my best to put it in ways she would be able to guess with her limited knowledge and experience. Most of the time we stick to the animal category due to this. But how many 11-year-olds know that coral is an animal?

Some things are just hard to explain and understand until you see it. When I finally said Coral, and showed her the picture, she was like, “Ohhhhh, yeah like in Finding Nemo”.

“And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” (Matthew 20:17-19)

This is the third time Jesus has predicted His death and, as the disciples hear it, I can only imagine their faces: dumbstruck.

They hear Jesus, but they don’t quite comprehend or understand exactly what it means. In fact, they are too preoccupied with themselves to really listen. The scriptures before and after this passage are about the disciples still trying to figure out what their “place” or standing will be in the new kingdom.

Oh, the patience our Lord must have!

It wasn’t until Jesus had been led away, beaten, crucified, rose from the grave, and then appeared to the disciples that they finally understood.

The hope we have in Jesus Christ is something that many don’t understand. As you go through the tough times in this life, they look at you and say how can you smile or how can you be okay? And you explain that the joy of the Lord is the only thing that holds you together. But until they know the Lord, they will never understand that joy.

Maybe you desire that joy and need to be saved today. Do you know how?

If you realize you are a sinner and in need of a Savior, Jesus Christ is the only one that can do that. He is the perfect, sinless Son of God, who came to the earth, died for your sins, was buried and rose from the dead 3 days later. Because of that, your sins can be forgiven! All you have to do is believe in Him and ask Him to forgive you. There is no sinner’s prayer in the Bible. You simply speak from your heart to God and ask Him to save you from the debt of your sin, Hell.

He will save you.

And then, you will understand what true joy is.