As Jerusalem gathered to hear the book of the Law read after they had rebuilt their walls an amazing thing happened, they realized that they fell short of the Law that was being read and they fell on their faces and began to weep and mourn. At that moment, Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites ran amongst the crowd and began to stop their weeping by proclaiming, “Do not sorrow, the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Conviction is an important thing, it gives us the ability to know when we are nearing or have fallen into sin, but sorrow is not God’s objective for our lives, joy is. A return to joy is a return to God; a return to joy is a return to relationship; a return to joy is an astonishing realization that God is good, that His love is everlasting and that we can find saftey, strength and refuge in His joy.