“Your joy and
pleasure are the same substance which God delights in: "You will make them
drink of the river of your pleasures" Psalm 36:8.
God takes pleasure
in the graces of His saints; but how much more in His own inherent holiness,
from whence those graces, those beautiful beams of righteousness, were first
sent forth! Thus you are doing something God Himself cannot do if you can wrest
any true pleasure out of unholiness. And let me ask this-- is it not the lowest
of blasphemies for you to say that the path of righteousness is an enemy to
true pleasure? In that accusation you are saying God Himself lacks joy, because
true pleasure does not exist outside of holiness.
Even the devils,
who hate God with a perfect hatred dare not declare that He is without joy.
They know God is "glorious in holiness" and the Christian's bliss
consists in sharing the same holiness which makes God Himself so blessed Exodus
15:11. This, Christian, is the ultimate expression of happiness, either
on earth or in heaven-- the same thing that makes you glorious is what has made
God glorious. Your joy and pleasure are the same substance, which God delights
in: "You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures Psalm 36:8.
Mark those words-- "the river of your pleasures." God has His
pleasures, and He causes saints to drink of them!
Whenever a king
commands his servants to take a visitor down into the cellar so he can drink
wine with them, the person is highly honored by his host's generous gesture.
But for the king to set the man at his table and let him drink his own wine is
an even more cherished experience. Thus when God gives a man the creaturely
pleasures of property, corn, wine, and oil, He entertains him in that common
wine cellar. But when His grace and mercy beautify a soul with holiness, He
gives the most precious gift the person can receive. He never clothes a man
with the robe of righteousness unless He means to seat him at His own table in
heaven's glory.”
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell.
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