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.

General Gordon regretted that no one had told him when he was a young man that there was a Holy Spirit which he could possess and which could possess him. The knowledge would have saved him weakness, and sorrow , and loss. But when the later loneliness came, Gordon knew the inner strengthening of the Spirit. A power not his own came to his help. He was “strengthened with all power” (Colossians 1:1 1).

This is the apostle’ s sense of the magnitude of the Spirit. There is nothing we can need at any time of pressure, whether of duty or of danger , of temptation or of anxiety , but the Divine Ally will make Himself the resource of the soul to meet and endure the strain.

The apostle urges that the utmost room should be made for the Spirit; that a man possess the Divine gift in its utmost measur e. He seems to suggest that there are degrees of possession; there are measurements we make, limitations we impose, and in his eager way he urges that we make the utmost room for the Spirit’ s fullness. Do not go in for small measur es; do not restrict your allowance. The gift of the Spirit is not on a rationing basis. Do not confine yourself to mean and petty degrees of the Spirit. “Be filled with the Spirit.” There is no surfeit here, nor need there be any restriction. “T HE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN ” BY JOHN MACBEATH

There are deep things of God. Push out fr om shor e,

Hast thou found much? Give thanks and look for mor e.

Dost fear the gener ous Giver to offend?

Then know His stor e of bounty hath no end.

He doth not need to be implor ed or teased;

The mor e we take the better He is pleased.

Beside the common inheritanc e of the land, there are some special possessions. A. B. S IMPSON

“Have ye r eceived the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” (Acts 19:2 KJV)

I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

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.—Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord : and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Praise ye the Lord : for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God.

I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.

He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.

The joy of the Lord is your strength.—The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.—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 unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

By him . . . let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Although 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 stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord , I will joy in the God of my salvation.—Sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing.—We glory in tribulations also.

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.

Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess: but be filled with the Spirit.

If any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Let us not sleep, as do others: but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober.

Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.