If you abundantly talk of God’s goodness, you are sure to benefit your neighbors. Many are comforted when they hear of God’s goodness to their friends.
– Charles Spurgeon –
from Spurgeon on Praise
Joy & Happiness
A Passionate Joy in Your Spirit – Keith Green
It seems to me that there are but few who really live with a passion for God—especially a passion just to be with Him. Today there is such a noise coming up before the throne of the Most High—the clamor of so-called praise, singing, and joyful shouting. But I wonder if the same people who love to sing and shout, loudly exclaiming the praises of God, really have such an intense glory in their secret life with the Lord. When the meeting’s over and there’s no one there to listen except the only One who matters, do you still have that same passionate joy in your spirit, just to be alone with the Living God?
– Keith Green –
Faith, Optimism, and Discouragement – George Kulp
Faith makes a man an optimist. The man who believes God cannot be discouraged. He hears the Master talking to him and, as he listens to Him, there comes the comforting words, “I am with thee even to the end.” Now, the devil can launch his brigades and his divisions and his legions, but this man sees the other side and shouts the victory.
– George Kulp –
What Do You Take Pleasure In? – Keith Green
If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence…? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now!
– Keith Green –
Christian Contentment in All Things – Jeremiah Burroughs
It is the Lord who gives us all things to enjoy; we may have the thing and yet not enjoy it unless God comes in with his blessing. Now whatever you have, you enjoy it; many men have possessions and do not enjoy them. It is the blessing of God which gives us all things to enjoy, and it is God who through his blessing has fashioned your heart and made it suitable to your circumstances.
– Jeremiah Burroughs –
from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 1648
Why the Church Stays Indoors – Samuel Chadwick
Why does the Church stay indoors? They have a theology that has dwindled into a philosophy, in which there is no thrill of faith, no terror of doom, and no concern for souls. Unbelief has put out the fires of passion, and worldliness garlands the altar of sacrifice with the tawdry glitter of unreality.
– Samuel Chadwick –
Know No Other Passion But Unmixed Joy and Unbound Love – Henry Scougal
Let us often withdraw our thoughts from this earth, this scene of misery, and folly, and sin, and raise them toward that more vast and glorious world, whose innocent and blessed inhabitants solace themselves eternally in the divine presence, and know no other passion but an unmixed joy, and an unbound love.
– Henry Scougal –
from The Life of God in the Soul of Man
Kill But Not Hurt – Justin Martyr
You can kill us, but you can’t hurt us.
– Justin Martyr –
Untellable Fullness of Joy – Hannah Whitall Smith
Our God is so wonderfully good, and lovely, and blessed in every way that the mere fact of belonging to Him is enough for an untellable fullness of joy!
– Hannah Whitall Smith –