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Lasting Joy
“The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
Frances Ridley Havergal was born in Astley, England, on December 14th, 1836, and died June 3rd, 1879, at Caswell Bay. She will long be remembered as a poet and hymn-writer, and for the many devotional tracts and pamphlets she penned. When meditating on the above verse of Scripture here is what she wrote:
“Perhaps in that word ‘of’ lies the whole secret of lasting joy. This joy is not merely joy ‘about’ the Lord, or even joy ‘in’ the Lord. It is His own joy flowing into the soul. Jesus prayed that His followers ‘might have My joy fulfilled in themselves’ (John 17:13). Let us seek not the stream but the fountain; not primarily the joy but the real and living union with Jesus by which His joy becomes ours.”
One of the last things the Lord said to His disciples before He went to the cross was, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). How much do you and I enter into the Lord’s joy and what we mean to His heart?
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