If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth’s grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for the joy of angels lies in obedience to God’s will.
– John Newton –
1725-1807
Oh how sweet to work for God all day, and then lie down at night beneath His smile.
– Robert Murray McCheyne –
Have we not with joy observed how those very things that sense and reason tell us are opposite to our happiness have been the most blessed instruments to promote it! How has God blessed crosses to mortify corruption, wants to kill our wantonness, disappointments to wean us from the world! O we little think how comfortable those things will be in the review, which are so burdensome to present sense!
– John Flavel –
from The Mystery of Providence, 1678
There is true pleasure in true religion. … You startle at it, and start from it as a hard saying, like Nathaniel, when he said, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ (John 1.46). So you are ready to say, can there be any pleasure in religion? Believe it, sirs, there can be, there cannot but be pleasure in it.
– Matthew Henry –
from The Pleasantness of a Religious Life, 1714
The Lord never takes away any comfort from his people without giving them something better. The disciples parted with Christ’s corporal presence and he sent them the Holy Ghost. God eclipses one joy and augments another. He simply makes an exchange; he takes away a flower and gives a diamond.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Godly Man’s Picture, 1666
Faith is the key that unlocks Paradise and lets a flood of joy into the soul.
– Thomas Brooks –
How many have given only what they could never miss and what costs them little or no sacrifice. How different it would be if the full blessing of Pentecost began to flow in. How the hearts of men would burn with love for Jesus and, out of sheer joy, be impelled to give everything that He might be known as Savior and all might know His love.
– Andrew Murray –
from Experiencing the Holy Spirit
No one can live without delight, and that is why a man deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasure.
– Thomas Aquinas –
1225-1274
When we have Jesus, we have everything we need for true joy and happiness. … Real happiness comes from Jesus Christ.
– Leslie Ludy –