If trouble and care will try to force themselves upon us, we have nothing to do or say to them, but cast them all upon Him who “careth” for us and is the master of them. We should rejoice and be able to say, “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” Blow hot or blow cold, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” We are responsible to God to refresh and cheer each other and to comfort one another with the comfort we have of God; it is a work and a witness for Him in the midst of a joyless and thankless world. Instead of leaving all things in the keeping of our loving God, we darken the present with the shadows of the future and suffer the many sorrows of unbelief. We forget that the more we “joy in God,” the more cause for joy He will give us—that the more we praise Him, the more we glorify Him. A heart full of Christ is a heart full of joy, not my own, but His. “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Let His joy rule in your hearts and be “sunshine in the shady place.”
Excerpts from “As Sorrowful, Yet Always Rejoicing,” Christian Truth, Vol. 8