"With Gladness of Heart" Conclusion - The Gladdest Person

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe….

"With Gladness of Heart"

 Conclusion - The Gladdest Person

   

    

    Scripture declares the Lord Jesus Christ to have been the gladdest person who ever lived.

    "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity.  Therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows" (Hebrews 1:9).

  This does not contradict another description of our Savior as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3).  As referenced in yesterday's consideration, a glad heart and sorrowful emotions are not mutually exclusive in those who walk with God.  This was especially true of the Lord Jesus, who perfectly navigated the course of His earthly life despite being "tempted in all points like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15).  This included obedience to "rejoice in the Lord, o ye righteous" (Psalm 33:1).  During more than three decades of such challenge, the Lord Jesus experienced many occasions in which He felt great sorrow (Matthew 26:38).  Never, however, did He disobey His Father's command to rejoice.  He perpetually made the choice to rejoice in heart during times of both happiness and sadness.   This we know because had the Lord Jesus even once disobeyed the will of God, He could not have died for our sins "as a Lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Peter 1:9).  Certainly this elicits much gratitude in our hearts, and opportunity even in this moment to give thanks for so faithful - and so glad - a Savior.

   The Spirit of this supremely glad Christ now lives in all believers.  As we trust and submit to Him, He will motivate and enable the same joyful heart that characterized His earthly lifetime.  As did our Lord, we will also experience much sorrow in a world that brings pain, heartache, and heartbreak to all.  Sometimes joy and sorrow will reside concurrently within us: "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (II Corinthians 6:10).  Always, however, our Lord's joy transcends as we trust and expect Him to reveal His glad heart where it seems it could not be.  God Himself serves as the very essence of our joy, and as we look to Him through both smiles and tears, His joy will find a place in us that can only be explained by the presence of the gladdest Person…

"The joy of the Lord is your strength."

(Nehemiah 8:10)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice."

(Philippians 4:4)

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