Sitting with Nehemiah 8:10 on a Tender Morning

This morning I opened my scriptures with a little heaviness still sitting in my chest.

Yesterday I had a meeting with my bishop. It was one of those conversations that starts with a good desire, wanting to serve, wanting to be faithful, wanting to do the right thing. And yet somehow when I walked away, I felt unsettled. Not angry. Just… tender.

Maybe you know that feeling.

When you are trying your best to follow the Lord, and suddenly you feel like you are being measured by something that does not quite capture your heart.

So this morning I sat down with my Bible study in Ezra and Nehemiah, still carrying that conversation with me. And there it was, almost like the Lord had placed it there ahead of time.

Nehemiah 8:10

“Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

I had to pause.

Because if I am honest, my first instinct when something feels confusing or discouraging is not joy. My instinct is to replay the conversation. To analyze the words. To wonder if I should have said something differently.

But Nehemiah was speaking to a group of people who were in the middle of rebuilding their lives after exile. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down. Their sense of identity had been shaken. They were trying to restore something sacred that had been broken.

And as they listened to the word of God being read, the people began to weep.

They realized how far things had drifted. How much had been lost. It was overwhelming.

But Nehemiah stepped in and told them something surprising.

Do not stay in the grief.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Not the approval of everyone around you.

Not the comfort of everything going smoothly.

Not the reassurance that every conversation will land the way you hoped.

Joy in the Lord.

I think sometimes we quietly place our strength in the wrong places. We look for it in people, policies, opinions, or approvals. And the truth is, those things will always disappoint us at some point. They are human. They shift. They change depending on perspective.

But the joy of the Lord is different.

It is steady.

It is remembering that God sees the intent of your heart even when others misunderstand it.

It is remembering the moments He has shown up in your life before.

It is remembering that your relationship with Him is not defined by one conversation, one interpretation, or one hard moment.

That kind of joy does not ignore the hard things.

It simply refuses to let them be the center of the story.

This morning as I sat with that verse, I felt something soften inside of me.

The questions did not disappear.

The situation is still what it is.

But the weight of it felt different.

Because strength does not always come from having everything resolved.

Sometimes strength comes from remembering who God is.

And when I remember Him, when I remember His goodness, His patience with me, His quiet presence in my life, something steadies.

Maybe that is part of what rebuilding faith looks like.

Not pretending everything is perfect.

But choosing joy in the Lord anyway.

Letting that joy hold you steady while the rest of the pieces are still being worked out.

And perhaps that is exactly why Nehemiah said it the way he did.

The joy of the Lord is not just comfort.

It is strength.