Joy is the gift of God to those who trust in Christ. Be encouraged by these verses and commentary adapted from the ESV Study Bible.

Nehemiah 8:10

Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

As the people rejoiced in God and delighted in his presence, he would show himself strong to help them and defend them. “Joy” was a keynote because God had saved Israel, in both the remote and the recent past, and this story of salvation would have been told again in the reading of the Book of the Law.

John 15:10–11

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept…