June 11

Happy believers

“But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee” (Psa. 5:11).
“In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psa. 16:11).
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Rom. 15:13).

The prayer is for fullness of joy and peace through believing. There are no happy doubters, no jubilant unbelievers. The highest joy grows on the topmost bough of faith. The seed of joylessness is unbelief. Hence the antidote for a lack of joy, that “fruit of the Spirit,” is a little more faith in Jesus. Faith is the only doorway for God to enter the soul, leading the blessed procession of beatitudes—love, joy, and peace. How many try to admit them through the door of reason and fail. While His truth enters in through this door, He Himself can enter only through the door of faith. He is too large for our logic, but not for our faith.
—Daniel Steele.

A heavenly mind is a joyful mind; this is the nearest and the truest way to comfort, and without this you must needs be uncomfortable. Can a man be at the fire and not be warm, or in the sunshine and not have light? Can your heart be in Heaven and not have comfort? What could make so many frozen, uncomfortable Christians, but living so far as they do from Heaven, and what makes others so warm in comforts, but their frequent access so near to God!
—Richard Baxter.

Ah, life is lonely without God—
A desert drear and wild;
One feels an exile far from home
And like an orphan child.

Though weak and sinful, God is found
By those who are sincere;
To hearts that hunger for His love
He tenderly draws near.

To know the Father and the Son
Is everlasting bliss;
Earth’s fading joys cannot compare
With joy as pure as this!
—Max I. Reich.

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