Day 226
OYB - August 14
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Devotional Old Testament New Testament Psalm Proverb
Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!
A sad Christian is no witness for God. Ezra read the Book of the Law to the Jewish remnant, and when they heard God's words, "all the people chanted, ‘Amen! Amen!' as they lifted their hands toward heaven. Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground" (Nehemiah 8:6).

Why should church services and times of preaching be times of sadness and boredom? When the people wept after hearing God's words, Nehemiah told them, "Go and celebrate with a feast of choice foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared" (v. 10). The Israelites obeyed and celebrated "with great joy because they had heard God's words and understood them"

(v. 12)

Later that month, in celebrating a major festival that had been unobserved for many years, the people lived in booths for seven days, and "everyone was filled with great joy" (v. 17). Another observance followed, and this time for six hours at a time the Levites led in worship, saying, "Stand up and praise the Lord your God, for he lives from everlasting to everlasting!" Then they continued, "Praise his glorious name! It is far greater than we can think or say" (9:5).

Why should Christians ever lose their joy? Someone has said that if the devil can't steal your joy, he can't spoil your goods. Even in your most difficult moments, look to eternity, where you will forever rejoice, world without end. Take a drink today from the joy of heaven, for it is your strength!
1 Corinthians 9:1-18

Paul’s Use of Liberty

1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3My defense to those who examine me is this: 4Do we not have a right to eat and drink? 5Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working? 7Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?

8I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things? 9For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He? 10Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. 11If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. 13Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? 14So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.

15But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one. 16For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. 17For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. 18What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

Psalms 33:12-22

12Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

13The Lord looks from heaven;

He sees all the sons of men;

14From His dwelling place He looks out

On all the inhabitants of the earth,

15He who fashions the hearts of them all,

He who understands all their works.

16The king is not saved by a mighty army;

A warrior is not delivered by great strength.

17A horse is a false hope for victory;

Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

18Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,

On those who hope for His lovingkindness,

19To deliver their soul from death

And to keep them alive in famine.

20Our soul waits for the Lord;

He is our help and our shield.

21For our heart rejoices in Him,

Because we trust in His holy name.

22Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,

According as we have hoped in You.

Proverbs 21:11-12

11When the scoffer is punished, the naive becomes wise;

But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

12The righteous one considers the house of the wicked,

Turning the wicked to ruin.