The eighth chapter of Nehemiah refers to the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths, after Israel’s return from captivity. The Word of God was being read to the people day after day, and all were feeling a spirit of repentance and mourning over their sins and over their neglect and failure to obey everything that God had spoken to them; and they wept. In the midst of their mourning, the word came from Nehemiah saying, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (your stronghold). Nehemiah 8:9b–10.
Another passage related to the Feast of Tabernacles is Deuteronomy 16:13–15. “You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns. Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you shall be altogether joyful.” Joy is emphasized in these two Scriptures: “The joy of the Lord is your strength” and “You shall be altogether joyful.”
Joy, however, does not come merely by deciding to be joyful. We must also know how to be joyful. Our own feeble efforts are not adequate to obey the command of the Lord to rejoice always. When we are shattered and broken, our own determination to rejoice may not produce the joyfulness that we need. Joy must come from God because there are times when no occasion from the natural realm, no stimulus from circumstances, and nothing from within can produce any joyfulness. Joy is a state of heart, and it is dependent upon certain other states and attitudes of heart. Combined, they become a formula by which we can always have joy.
The formula for joy contains six ingredients, which will enable you always to be joyful, regardless of the circumstance that confronts you. However, this formula that produces joy would seem to produce debasement and humiliation, just the very opposite of joy. These are the ingredients: honesty, humility, hunger, hopefulness, helpfulness, and hearing. Each ingredient in this formula is surprisingly effective and can truly be a key to having joy.
The first ingredient in this formula is honesty. Psalm 51:6 says, Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know wisdom. This prayer of repentance begins with the subject of honesty—truth in the inward parts. In other words, stop deceiving yourself. Become truly honest. Listen to what God is speaking to your heart; be honest about it; evaluate it deeply and carefully. The result of such deep inward honesty is expressed later in verses 8 and 12: Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
You will never have joy as long as you are deceiving yourself. Unhappiness is a result of inward deception. Joy is a result of inward truth. A person may be miserable for years; then, in a single moment, he can see himself honestly and confess what is in his heart. From that moment, when he sees the truth and confesses it, he will begin to move into a path of joy. Truth in the inward parts results in the restoration of joy. If you have lost the joy, think back; and you will probably remember a time when you opened your heart to deception. If there is any miserableness within your heart, then you do not know the truth. Whenever you are troubled with problems, realize that in some area of your life you are evading the truth. Seek God about it honestly, and joy will spring forth almost immediately.
The next ingredient is humility. To most people, being humble is degrading and synonymous with being walked on. Is that joy? However, God opposes the proud; their position is always being challenged. It is challenged by God and it is challenged by men. People who are proud do not understand why they are being challenged, why they are unhappy, why they feel threatened. Humility will solve their problem. If you have not been very happy lately, start by being honest with yourself; then humble yourself a little. When you no longer worry and fret about being king of the mountain, but you are satisfied to be somewhere down at the bottom of the pile, you will find that no one challenges you for that position. Most people are on the defensive because of their pride, but the humble have nothing to defend. The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad, Psalm 34:2b. God exalts the humble.… He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. James 4:6, 10. Humility is an essential ingredient in the formula for joy.
The third ingredient of joy is hunger. In the realm of Spirit, the happy people are the hungry ones; whereas in the physical realm, it is natural for the hungry to be unhappy. People’s hunger is often the spark that causes revolution. A spiritual man is never really joyful unless he is hungry. You will never know greater joy than during a time when you are hungering after God with all of your heart. When your spiritual stomach rumbles with hunger, your heart sings.
Luke 1:46–55 records the Magnificat, Mary’s expression of praise, as her soul magnified the Lord. In this beautiful song, she proclaimed that those who are full are sent away empty. The proud, the arrogant, and the rich are brought down as well. This is a principle of the gospel of Christ which is difficult to grasp. You can easily spot the lack of sincerity in a Christian who appears to be very radiant and joyful and claims to be so happy to have found Jesus; meanwhile, he maintains a personal satisfaction with worldly possessions or interests. The believer who is really joyful does not have to put on a false front before the world. Joy is not a pretense. It is a real visitation from God. The human spirit becomes joyful through its hunger after God.
The beautiful song of Hannah also speaks of this ingredient of joy. The Lord had given her a baby, and when she dedicated him to the Lord she sang this song: “The Lord makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts. He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles, and inherit a seat of honor; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He set the world on them. He keeps the feet of His godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness; for not by might shall a man prevail. Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered; against them He will thunder in the heavens, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth; and He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed.” I Samuel 2:7–10.
Hannah knew that the smug and the complacent would go away empty, while the hungry would be filled and have joy. This theme occurs again and again throughout the Scriptures. It can also be observed in the lives of people. You do not need to be a prophet or the son of a prophet to see the smugness and arrogance of those who are not hungry for God, who are not humble before God, who are not honest with God. They are phonies. And it makes no difference how they appear; ultimately they will be brought down. Others do not appear to be very successful; yet they seem to be sincerely honest and humble, hungering after God and reaching in. To the world they appear to be very naive; yet they are the ones who find the greatest joy.
The fourth ingredient is hope. Proverbs 13:12a says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Hope sustains joy. Emotions can fade in time, but love, joy, peace, and the other attributes in the fruit of the Spirit have a sustaining quality that can be very permanent. “Hope thou in God” is the admonition of the Scriptures (Psalm 2:5). With great hope we have great joy, a joy that makes the present time rich even before the days when that hope is fulfilled. You need not have the fulfillment in order to be joyful. Your very hope will fill the present with joy. But when faith and hope waver, then desperation and despair become the state of heart, and all the joy in the present time dissipates. Do you want to be joyful? Keep your hope. Keep it bright; keep it strong. If God has given you a promise, hope in it with all of your heart. True hope will always experience a joyful present with a persistent faith for the future.
But now abide faith, hope, love, these three… I Corinthians 13:13. Although the greatest of the three is love, faith is not necessarily named first because it is more important than hope. Hope is also an expression of faith, a faith that does not let up. You can have faith, but you will have faith continually if it is united with hope. True hope has a faith that persists for the future. Many have a faith that wavers under adversity; their faith wanes and then it rises, again and again and again. God tests their hope—a hope that is going to be persistent for the future. Persistent hope is faith that does not waver. And that is a part of the formula for joy.
These ingredients are the greatest keys to possessing joy that you will find. They explain why some people have joy and others do not. Joy is not some elusive quality that rains down out of heaven so that you can say, “I am joyful! I have the glory giggles!” That is not what God means when He speaks of joy. It is true that joy is an impartation, but it must be based upon a state of heart.
The fifth ingredient is helpfulness. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church saying that he was not a dictator over their faith, but that he was a helper of their joy (II Corinthians 1:24). When he ministered to them and they opened their hearts to his ministry, it resulted in joy. Paul also wrote to the Philippians, “You are my joy, my crown” (Philippians 4:1). The ones to whom he ministered were his joy, and he was the helper of their joy. Joy comes to you not only through your helpful faith to someone else, but it comes also by your accepting someone’s help. It is unlikely that there will be any joy without an exchange of giving and receiving. It is not on the basis of worthiness, nor on the basis of exchanging favors; it is simply because joy comes with wholehearted giving and receiving.
Jesus taught the same principle to His disciples by telling them to wash one another’s feet. As He had washed their feet, so they were to wash one another’s feet. Jesus said, If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. John 13:17. Joy comes to us when we give help and also when we accept help. “Make my joy complete” (Philippians 2:2) is another scriptural phrase that relates to the same process. Receive helpfulness from someone. Give a little helpfulness to someone.
If you follow these guidelines, you should never have an excuse for experiencing distress or despair. If you do, somewhere along the line you have missed part of the formula. Have you ever experienced times when you were very joyful, but did not know why? You had not been given a raise at work; nothing in particular had happened. Perhaps you simply knelt down and humbled yourself before the Lord. Perhaps you spent a little time alone and simply opened your heart honestly before God, telling Him that you had to face up to a few things that were wrong. Perhaps you woke up one morning feeling disgusted with the world, and you felt a deep hunger for God. As a result, in a little while you were joyful. Some people try so hard to be happy. They are determined to be happy. They have a drive to be happy. Under certain circumstances they will set their minds, and they are about as happy as they decide to be. But it is such an effort. If they would only follow this formula, their happiness would increase a great deal.
The sixth part of the formula is hearing. The prophet wrote, … thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16. Rarely will you feel as good after watching television, even an uproariously funny program, as you will after listening to the Word. The true joy that you are seeking does not come because you decide to put the Spirit aside and set about to have a good time. Spending the evening in front of the television with some drinks and popcorn does not mean that you will go to bed happy and joyful. Some people insist on watching the late news. What about reading the Scriptures? Oh, that can wait until morning—if they have time. After watching the news, they are certain that something bad is happening, but they are not sure what it is; consequently, they spend a miserable night. When will we ever learn that joy does not come by catering and pampering the flesh. It never will. Joy comes by an entirely different process. “Thy word was the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”
Now that we have learned the ingredients for joy, let us consider the negative qualities that produce the opposite of joy. The opposite of honesty is deceit; of humility, pride; of hunger, smugness; of hopefulness, despair; of helpfulness, independence. Finally, rejecting the Word is the opposite of hearing the Word. There is no antibiotic that can alleviate the misery of soul and cure these deadly hindrances to joy. Deceitful people are usually very unhappy. People who are proud (pride is also a form of deceit) do not appear to be very joyful. People who are in the midst of despair, with nothing but blackness in their hearts, have no joy either. An independent person, one who refuses to be a part of the Body of Christ and submissive to the Body, is not happy. You will never see anyone reject the Word, withdraw from it, run from it, or neglect it, without also seeing the symptom of unhappiness that fills his whole being.
Joy is found in renouncing the completeness of yourself as an individual and knowing that you are complete only in Christ and in a right relationship to His Body. This is true also in the natural realm. A pretty young woman, who has a good job and a nice car, may feel that she has no need of anything or anyone. She is happy and independent. Then she falls in love and renounces her independent life, concentrating now on being a wife, as she sets about to take care of the man she married, to wait on him and to serve him. In one sense, she is not a whole person (not in the way she was); but in another sense, she has become a whole person. Now she is filled with joy. She gets up in the morning and does her chores; then she goes off to work feeling all aglow. The other girls in the office look at her with interest. They know why she is so happy; she is married. (Do not get the idea, however, that this will necessarily make you happy.) She is happy because she has become a part of a whole. Her life has become complete because she is now a part, instead of insisting on being a whole person by herself. That is a key of joy. Do you want to be joyful? Stop being independent. Become involved with the work of the Lord. Declare yourself to be a servant of the Body of Christ. Do as much as you possibly can.
This principle is illustrated repeatedly in the book of Acts. The disciples are described as always being filled with joy. As they staggered home, bruised and bleeding from a beating, they were joyful, rejoicing in the Lord, filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Their joy was not influenced in the least by persecutions; it was not influenced in the least by their circumstances. Nothing that happened to them or befell them determined how joyful they would be. Their joy was based upon the fact that they had fulfilled this formula. When all the comforts of life were taken from those early believers, they were still joyful. They had followed the command in Deuteronomy, concerning the Feast of Tabernacles: “You shall be altogether joyful.”
In Nehemiah’s day, the same commandment was spoken to a people who suddenly had become aware of all of their sin, all of their needs. They were ready to weep, but they were commanded not to mourn, not to sorrow, for the joy of the Lord would be their strength. They had humbled themselves; therefore they were going to be joyful. That is why they received such a command; they had humbled themselves. It is a very simple process. If people will follow the simple ingredients in the formula for joy, Isaiah 51:11 promises that everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.