Joy for the Journey ~ Dianne Durden
The Joy of the Lord is my strength. Nehemiah 8:10
Learning to find strength in your relationship with Christ, and realizing you can trust him for all things is to deny your self and wholly rely on God.
Denying one’s self and living solely according to His Word and his perfect will, brings the greatest Joy and gives you true victory!
Habakkuk 3:18-19
Verse 18: "Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Verse 19: "The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments."
These verses might not mean anything to you right now. You might not even understand the depth of these verses until you face sufferings in your walk with the Lord. It’s kind of strange to say to know Joy you must suffer. These words are the opposite of one another in my opinion. However, God knows more than we do. He takes life’s toughest storms to teach us how to trust him.
The life we live on this earth can be filled with fear, hurt and anxiety. We experience real human emotions that we think we can handle. But when life hits you like a hurricane and knocks you off your feet, I hope you have real faith. I hope you react like a Christian. Sometimes the storms we encounter are God’s way of teaching us about the Joy of resting in God’s arms. That’s when we experience that joy unspeakable and full of glory! When we truly feel His grace on our behalf.
I know about His joy from the most helpless time in my life when my 20-year-old daughter was kidnapped from our home by an escaped prisoner. She was missing for 3 hours without a trace. We had no clue who took her, only that there were some escaped convicts in our area. But when the realization hit us that that is who had our child- I thought I would lose it. But something surrounded me, I felt fear and doubt, but
yet something came over me. There was a peace like I had never known. My husband and I prayed for her safety, for her purity, and for her life. I hoped that all that we instilled in our child was enough for her to survive. I remember praying with my husband these very words… “Lord, you said you would never leave me nor forsake me and I trust you. I know just like you delivered Daniel in the Lions’ den, you can deliver my child for harm’s way. I beg you Lord to bring her back alive. I gave her back to you Lord as a baby on an alter of prayer and I promised to raise her for your honor and glory. She belongs to you because you saved her and you love her more than I do. Give me grace and increase my faith and strengthen me.”
The peace the passeth all understanding over shadowed my family. People were praying across the southeastern United States for my family. And GOD, only God, supplied us with Joy unspeakable and Full of Glory! We were scared, but we trusted our Saviour that even if she never returned that His hand was on our life!
The result, she came home! She’s serving God faithfully! She’s married with three precious little girls. She speaks at Ladie’s meetings telling others about the Joy and the goodness of God and how while we were praying for her, she was praying to God to come home to Mom and Dad. We didn’t know how this trail would turn out. We didn’t know if there would be scars to live with. I would like to think that regardless of the outcome that I would have continued in my journey with joy because Christ is my redeemer. Circumstances can’t control my service to the Lord. And if I am suffering through a trial then the Lord wants me to know I can trust that He is working it for my good.
The Lord is my Strength and only God can supply Joy in my journey!