Daily Devotionals

Devotional: March 27th

CHRISTIAN JOY A DUTY

Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stall; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.-- Habakkuk 3:17-18

It is a plain, positive duty to cultivate true Christian joy. " Rejoice in the Lord always" is a command. The true ideal of Christian character gives a very prominent place to gladness, and they who do not in some measure attain to a joyous religion fail in a very important part of Christian duty. Of course there are many experiences in Christian life, and there are sides of Christian truth which are calculated to produce a sobered solemnity and sadness. But whilst all that is perfectly true, it is also true that it is incumbent upon us Christian people so to gather into our hearts the far more abounding joys of Divine communion, quiet trust, and bright hope, as that there shall be no room in our lives for despondency or despair, and not much room in our lives for tears. Christian gladness is Christian duty.

Ah! but you say: "I cannot help my circumstances, and they hinder joy." No! but God’s Gospel is given to us to make us think less of our circumstances, and to say, as the prophet said of old, "Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, and there be no fruit in the vine," or, in modern language, "Though trade be bad, and the profits of my business be decreasing; though I have but a poor outlook for the future, and do not know what I am to turn to next; though my home be desolate compared with what it was, and faces that used to be beside me have gone into the dust for ever, yet will I joy in the Lord, and rejoice in the God of my salvation."

Has it come to this, that our Christianity is the kind of thing that the devil suggested Job’s religion was - that we are only going to trust when there is not much need for it, and to believe in Him and love Him when He is doing well with us? If we are at the mercy of circumstances, then we need to look to the reality of our Christianity.

But you may say: " I cannot control my temperament. I am not naturally sanguine or buoyant in my disposition." No! Well, God’s Gospel was given to us to control our temperaments, and to make it possible by reason of its great gifts and motives, that characters which were not naturally inclined to be joyful should be made so. And if our Christianity does nothing for us in the way of helping us to appropriate alien virtues, I do not know what difference there is between "nature" and "grace"; and I think we had better see to it whether we have any higher power than our own working in our hearts.

Copyright Statement