Helps to joy

". . . rejoicing in the Lord is . . . the only joy that can never fail us. . . . Whatever else you and I may try to base our joy and happiness upon will finally fail us, whether it be ourselves, our success, our ability, our worldly learning, our home, or our children. It does not matter what it is, every one of these things is finally going to be removed and we shall all be left in isolation. A moment will come when we will find ourselves going out of life, and out of the world, and we will realise that there are things which we cannot take with us. Then our souls will be suddenly stripped and made bare, and we will awaken to the fact that we have been depending upon things that cannot go with us across the river of death--that is the loneliness of death. "

". . . The way to rejoice in the Lord . . . . is, first and foremost, to be able to control every other source of joy. That is a negative proposition but it is essential. If I find that my joy is dependent upon anything which can be taken from me, I must correct it. As a Christian I am in this life and world, but though I must be in it, I am not of it; I must ride loosely to it, and to all that it can give. I must be very careful that I am not brought under the power of any one of these things. They are quite permissible and legitimate in their place, many of them have been ordained by God, but I must look at the very centre of my joy, and must always be watching and correcting it. I must expose it to myself and realize the danger, and I must refuse to build the whole of my energies upon any insecure foundations.
" The next aspect, a positive one, is this: I am to meditate upon him. You cannot rejoice in the Lord without thinking about him. I must deliberately turn my eyes from the other things that tend to charm and fascinate me and I must dwell on him. Is that not the great reply of the author of the epistle to the Hebrews: '. . . let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus . . .' (Heb. 12:1-2) Contemplate him, keep your eyes fixed upon him. You have to look at him before you can rejoice in him. " --D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones from his sermons on Philippians as found in The Life of Peace, Baker Book House, 1992.