12 min
Nehemiah 8:10 "A New Strength" with Brenda and Shelley Morning Cup of Faith
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- Religion & Spirituality
The time change is coming, it’s getting darker earlier and we’re all transitioning out of a rocky 18 months of the pandemic. Many of us are running on empty. Where are we going to get this new fresh strength from? Take a moment to reflect on the last year. What’s going on in your life? Where are you going? What areas of your life need to be restored? The answer can be found in one of our favorite verses Nehemiah 8:10 “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” God is always waiting for us with a fresh start and a new strength. Brenda shares, “I didn’t realize when I was a little girl that our joy came from God. I write about #ijoy in my book “Rise Up.” It means “I AM JESUS ON YOU.” When God is close, joy is near. It’s a beautiful aroma, like a favorite fragrance we wear." Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king who built the protective wall around the defenseless Jerusalem in just 52 days. At the start of the book of Nehemiah, Israel was in a dark period after returning from 70 years of exile in Babylon, isolated from God. Nehemiah did what he could do in the natural world to rebuild his city. In the supernatural, God brought the people, supplies and finances for Nehemiah to complete the wall. God too will restore what was lost in our lives, block by block, if we bring Him into our dreams. What are some of your blocks to His abundant joy? How do you know you're in bondage? Brenda laughs, “Check your joy monitor.” Shelley explains, “One of our recent guests, Heather MacFadyen (“Don’t Mom Alone”) talked about how a spirit of weakness was over her and when she asked the spirit why it was there, it said, ‘I was never asked to leave.’ Her story had such a big impact on me because I have been fighting a similar stronghold for the past couple of years. It’s daily work. The first step in breaking a stronghold is realizing you have one.” Whatever brokenness we have in our lives, Nehemiah’s story gives us hope. Brenda adds, “Joy is our birthright. The word ‘joy’ appears 88 times in the Hebrew Bible. Having joy is the fruit of the spirit.” What’s one area that needs to be rebuilt in your life?
The time change is coming, it’s getting darker earlier and we’re all transitioning out of a rocky 18 months of the pandemic. Many of us are running on empty. Where are we going to get this new fresh strength from? Take a moment to reflect on the last year. What’s going on in your life? Where are you going? What areas of your life need to be restored? The answer can be found in one of our favorite verses Nehemiah 8:10 “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” God is always waiting for us with a fresh start and a new strength. Brenda shares, “I didn’t realize when I was a little girl that our joy came from God. I write about #ijoy in my book “Rise Up.” It means “I AM JESUS ON YOU.” When God is close, joy is near. It’s a beautiful aroma, like a favorite fragrance we wear." Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king who built the protective wall around the defenseless Jerusalem in just 52 days. At the start of the book of Nehemiah, Israel was in a dark period after returning from 70 years of exile in Babylon, isolated from God. Nehemiah did what he could do in the natural world to rebuild his city. In the supernatural, God brought the people, supplies and finances for Nehemiah to complete the wall. God too will restore what was lost in our lives, block by block, if we bring Him into our dreams. What are some of your blocks to His abundant joy? How do you know you're in bondage? Brenda laughs, “Check your joy monitor.” Shelley explains, “One of our recent guests, Heather MacFadyen (“Don’t Mom Alone”) talked about how a spirit of weakness was over her and when she asked the spirit why it was there, it said, ‘I was never asked to leave.’ Her story had such a big impact on me because I have been fighting a similar stronghold for the past couple of years. It’s daily work. The first step in breaking a stronghold is realizing you have one.” Whatever brokenness we have in our lives, Nehemiah’s story gives us hope. Brenda adds, “Joy is our birthright. The word ‘joy’ appears 88 times in the Hebrew Bible. Having joy is the fruit of the spirit.” What’s one area that needs to be rebuilt in your life?
12 min