“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4).
“Happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.” (Psa. 144:15).
Do not think the way home to God our Father is all uphill. God wants us to be happy now. What sort of an idea will men around us get of our God if we always go about with long faces, and look as though there was no such thing as heavenly sunshine? The apostle could write to the children of God and say,
“These things I write unto you, that your joy may be full.” It is quite true that “in His presence is fullness of joy,” but God our Father has made this known to us that its bright “sunbeams” shining along our earthly pathway may fill our hearts with rejoicing and praise now.
An aged saint on her deathbed was seen smiling, and in reply to the question, “What makes you smile?” replied, “I am thinking of my expectations.”
The children of God have everything to make them happy, and even if they meet with trials and discouragements (and who does not?) they should carry the stamp of the peace of God upon their happy faces. Thus we shall commend and “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” If men can afford to be bright, and sing over their daily toil, and the women over their cleaning and dusting, how much more then the child of God as he thinks of his precious Savior and Lord; his loving Father in heaven, and his bright eternal home. Let us show by our conduct and ways that we believe what we say when we sing,
“Jesus, Thou art enough
The mind and heart to fill.”