A Joy-Infused Temperament 

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Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”  -  Nehemiah 8:10

 

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  -  Philippians 3:7-14

Can our temperament be changed, altered, or transformed? Our temperament is the composite characteristics of our mental and emotional peculiarities as manifested in our reactions. It is our makeup, our personality constitution. Our temperament is the result of conditioning, experience, and the influence of people in our growing years. The Latin noun for temperament means a proper mixture, and the verb means to mix in proper proportions.

 

Conversion to Christ - being born again - and then being filled with His Spirit changes the proportions. He remixes and transforms the things which make us what we are in our temperament. Paul could say, "For me to live is Christ." His "self" became the riverbed for the flow of the Spirit of Christ. The more he thought, prayed, studied, and lived Christ, the more his temperament was changed from harshness to hopefulness, from judgmentalism to joyousness, from legalism to liberation. But he did not follow Christ to get a new temperament; that became the inadvertent gift of attentiveness to the indwelling Christ.

 

How would you describe your temperament? What difference has Christ made in your peculiarities manifested in your reactions? Now look again at Nehemiah 8:10. That's today's refrain for our new temperament: "The joy of the Lord is your (my!) strength."

 

 

 

 

 

 

The devotional message, “A Joy-Infused Temperament”, was written by the late Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, and appeared in his devotional, “God’s Best For My Life”, Page 32.  Used with permission from Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR, www.harvesthousepublishers.com.  

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