Destination? Joyful! From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Thanks so much for joining me for more of this fun series, Destination? Joyful! ™ I can’t help but giggle with joy as I remember how we got this trademark, the writing journey riddled with highs and lows, frustrations and victories, lessons that have added to my Cup of Joy each and every day! Uh-oh, I think we have the next book title in the Cup series! Grab your coffee and come with me back through the pages of scripture to learn more about joy!

So we left off in the Book of Nehemiah where Ezra is telling the people who are filled with Godly sorrow that the joy of the Lord is their strength. Let’s see what the Hebrew concordance says about this context of joy. So this joy is “gladness.”

Wow, I just felt a little nudge on my heart reminding me of a precious series of memories made just a few years ago wherein I was happy to be sad, glad to be sad! The season of sadness produced such joy because I had been obedient to His calling and had experienced Godly sorrow for all that I had lost in the years gone by!

I don’t know about you but I am beginning to realize through writing this series that joy is a bit like patience and maybe even humility, too, because there’s a lot that goes into the recipe of joy!
Let’s go check out the next stop on our joy tour, which is in the Book of Esther. Now the events written about in this book actually happened prior to the events written in the book of Nehemiah, but they take place where the Book of Nehemiah begins, in Persia. To say there is conflict and confusion is an understatement; in fact, to be a Jew meant living in the shadow of death. It’s important to understand that oppression was all around in order to emphasize the power of joy.

For those of us who have not studied the Book of Esther, let me just give you a brief bio of her: She was a woman of beauty, inside and out. Because of her beauty and character, she was appointed queen by King Ahasuerus, king of Persia. Because of her title, of course she was surrounded by comfort and things that the world looks to for security but she did not think of herself before others and she did not think of herself better than others. She was a woman of courage and kindness as well as patient and intelligent. She was teachable, and she was humble. From her life – which would be another great blog series – we are able to grasp the truth that serving God often requires risking our own security. Her life’s story proves that God’s provision of working all things for our good and His glory is a truth to be grasped by us all.

So while there is an edict to kill all the Jews, Esther is used by God to save all the Jews in more ways than one. Her biggest and boldest move was that she pleaded with the king for years to reverse his decree. I can only imagine the tension in that household but she was fit for her assignment and carried it out with confident humility!

That is where we get back on our joy track in Chapter 8, Verse 17: “And in every province and city, wherever the king’s command and decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a holiday. Then many of the people of the land became Jews, because fear of the Jews fell upon them!

Wow, talk about a turn of events. First the Jews feared, then they became the object of fear! It’s really a cool story of how God used a series of events to bring a twist of results that could only be of/from God.

This is another huge victory in history, and it goes back to the first Hebrew translation for joy: the term for an external expression as well as the abstract internal feeling!

Can I encourage you today; have you gotten beyond what you deemed an impossible situation? Go ahead; rewind the moments and I pray that He will reveal through His sovereignty a powerful revelation showing that joy increases with adversity! The greater the trial, the bigger the victory; the bigger the victory, the more full our Cup of Joy!

Joyfully,
Evinda