Joy
“For Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm” (Isaiah 25:4).
I do not understand a Christian who is not full of joy, but instead going about with his head bowed down. In all the trials of earth, Christians should be like the robin in a storm. Many Christians are like the hen in a storm, and we all know what a hen in a storm is like. She is overwhelmed by it. We are not to be like a duck, indifferent to the storm; or like the hen alarmed and upset by it; but like the robin, who feels it keenly, but sings his sweet song anyway.
“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Not just in sunshine, but in shadows and storms as well. Not just when things are going well, but no matter what our lot in life. We cannot always rejoice in the circumstance, but we can always rejoice in the Lord.
Let’s be like the prophet who, surrounded with failure and difficulty, said, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:18).
