"Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart" (Psalm 32:11)
I must agree with the psalmist, even in our modern day, that the joy of the Lord is still the strength of His people. I do not believe that the sad world around us is attracted to spiritual sunshine - the genuine thing, that is!
Some churches train their greeters and ushers to smile, showing as many teeth as possible. But I can sense that kind of display - and when I am greeted by a man who is smiling because he has been trained to smile, I know I am shaking the flipper of a trained seal.
But when the warmth and delight and joy of the Holy Spirit are in a congregation and the folks are just spontaneously joyful and unable to hide the happy grin, the result is a wonderful influence upon others. Conversely, the reason we have to search for so many things to cheer us up is the fact that we are not really joyful and contentedly happy within!
I admit that we live in a gloomy world and that international affairs, nuclear rumors and threats, earthquakes and riots cause people to shake their heads in despair and say, "What's the use?"
But we are Christians and Christians have every right to be the happiest people in the world!We do not have to look to other sources - for we look to the Word of God and discover how we can know the faithful God above and draw from His resources.
Why should the children of the King hang their heads and tote their own burdens, missing the mark about Christian victory? All this time the Holy Spirit has been wanting to make Jesus Christ our chief joy and delight.
~A. W. Tozer~
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