The Song of the Lord Began

II Chronicles 29:27

Abounding joy is the prime characteristic of our holy religion—joy unspeakable and full of glory. This is as natural to true religion as the bloom on a maiden’s face is to perfect health. You can’t create joy, but you can make the conditions from which it springs.

If your life is joyless, it must be because of some sin. Find out, then, the reason why your harp hangs on the willow, and joy has died out of your life. Our Lord said: “These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11). If your joy is not full you have not entered into the heart of our Lord’s sermon about the vine and the branches.

Paul said: “The fruit of the Spirit is joy” (Galatians 5:22). Now, fruit is natural. There is no effort about fruit. Indeed the effort of the bough is to repress the fruit which presses forward into expression, so that gardeners have to prune away excessive production. If the bough is properly connected to the trunk, it bears fruit; and if you are properly related to our Lord, joy will be as natural to you as singing to a bird.