Worry has eaten my joy. I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed anything without a background hum of dread. How do I get that back?

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

The exiles had just heard the law read aloud for the first time in generations and they wept, because they understood how far they had fallen short. Nehemiah's instruction is startling. He tells them to stop mourning, eat well, share food with people who have none, and not to be grieved, because the joy of the LORD is their strength. Joy is prescribed here as a source of strength, not as its reward.

“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”

Jesus says these things to his disciples on the night before his arrest, so that his joy might remain in them and their joy might be full. The setting is important. This is not said on a good day. He is hours from the cross, and the joy he speaks of is clearly not dependent on circumstances improving, which means it is available in a season that has not improved either.