It is a good thing to “rejoice in the Lord.” Perhaps you have tried it but seemed to fail at first. Don’t give it a second thought, and forge ahead. Even when you cannot feel any joy, there is no spring in your step, nor any comfort or encouragement in your life, continue to rejoice and “consider it pure joy” (James 1:2). “Whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2), regard it as joy, delight in it, and God will reward your faith. Do you believe that your heavenly Father will let you carry the banner of His victory and joy to the very front of the battle, only to calmly withdraw to see you captured or beaten back by the enemy? NEVER! His Holy Spirit will sustain you in your bold advance and fill your heart with gladness and praise. You will find that your heart is exhilarated and refreshed by the fullness within.

Lord, teach me to rejoice in You—to “be always joyful” (1 Thessalonians 5:16 WNT).

The weakest saint may Satan rout, Who meets him with a praiseful shout.

“Be filled with the Spirit. . . . Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18–19). In these verses, the apostle Paul urges us to use singing as inspiration in our spiritual life. He warns his readers to seek motivation not through the body but through the spirit, not by stimulating the flesh but by exalting the soul.

Sometimes a light surprises The Christian while he sings. Let us sing even when we do not feel like it, for in this way we give wings to heavy feet and turn weariness into strength. JOHN HENRY JOWETT

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).

O Paul, what a wonderful example you are to us! You gloried in the fact that you “bear on [your] body the marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6:17). You bore the marks from nearly being stoned to death, from three times being “beaten with rods” (2 Corinthians 11:25), from receiving 195 lashes from the Jews, and from being bloodily beaten in the Philippian jail. Surely the grace that enabled you to sing praises while enduring such suffering is sufficient for us. J. ROACH

Oh, let us rejoice in the Lord, evermore, When darts of the Tempter are flying, For Satan still dreads, as he oft did before, Our singing much more than our crying.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. . . . Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

This is the way God works. In our darkest hour, He walks to us across the waves, just as an angel came to Peter’s cell when the day of Peter’s execution dawned. And when the scaffold was completed for Mordecai’s execution, the king’s sleeplessness ultimately led to his action favoring God’s favored race. (Esther 6.)

Dear soul, you may have to experience the very worst before you are delivered, but you will be delivered! God may keep you waiting, but He will always remember His promise and will appear in time to fulfill His sacred Word that cannot be broken. F. B. MEYER

God has a simplicity about Him in working out His plans, and yet He possesses a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty. His faithfulness to His trusting children is unwavering, and He is steadfast in holding to His purpose. In Joseph’s life, we see God work through a fellow prisoner, later through a dream, and finally through lifting Joseph from a prison to the position of governor. And the length of Joseph’s prison stay gave him the strength and steadiness he needed as governor.

It is always safe to trust God’s methods and to live by His clock. SAMUEL DICKEY GORDON

God in His providence has a thousand keys to open a thousand different doors in order to deliver His own, no matter how desperate the situation may have become. May we be faithful to do our part, which is simply to suffer for Him, and to place Christ’s part on Him and then leave it there. GEORGE MACDONALD

Difficulty is actually the atmosphere surrounding a miracle, or a miracle in its initial stage. Yet if it is to be a great miracle, the surrounding condition will be not simply a difficulty but an utter impossibility. And it is the clinging hand of His child that makes a desperate situation a delight to God.

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord : the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.—The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.—Bless the Lord , O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Is any merry? let him sing psalms.—Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord ; giving thanks always for all things.—Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.—Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again, I say, Rejoice.