‘We rejoice in God’ (Romans 5:11)

This is every believer’s privilege; God is reconciled to them in the person and through the work of Jesus: all charges against them are blotted out; all their sins are freely and fully forgiven; they are justified from all things; and stand before God in Christ, accepted, beloved and blessed. To the believer, God is love; with them God is at peace; and they are now a son or daughter of God.

If this is believed on the testimony of God, and realised in the soul as the effect of faith, then God becomes our exceeding joy, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. If we rejoice in circumstances, they change; if we rejoice in friends, they die; if we rejoice in possessions, they are vanity; but if we rejoice in God, though the exercise of joy may be interrupted, yet the object remains eternally the same, and we shall rejoice evermore.

Beloved, look at Jehovah in Jesus; there you see Him as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; joy and rejoice in Him as your God, your portion, your everlasting all. Throughout this day, rejoice in God as your Father, your Friend, and your Saviour.

Joy to find, in every station,
Something still to do or bear:
Think, what Father’s smiles are thine;
Think, what Jesus did to win thee –
Child of heaven, canst thou repine?
.

THE DAILY REMEMBRANCER by James Smith (1802-1862)

Journal Jottings

‘The rising of the sun ! and I was led to meditate on the rising of the spiritual sun on a sinner’s soul, when he enters into gospel rest. O how little everything earthly then appears in his eyes, compared with Jesus; also on the rising of this blessed sun when the ransomed soul enters into its glorious eternal rest.’