SERVE THE LORD WITH JOY!

Psalm 100:2 – Devotional

Psalm 100:2

“Serve the LORD with gladness come into His presence with singing.”

The Thirty Years’ War raged from 1618 to 1648, and was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily in Germany and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe.

Dur­ing this terrible conflict Martin Rinkart, served as a Lu­ther­an min­is­ter. The walled ci­ty saw a stea­dy stream of re­fu­gees pour through its gates. The Swed­ish army sur­round­ed the ci­ty, and fa­mine and plague were ramp­ant. Eight hund­red homes were de­stroyed, and the peo­ple be­gan to per­ish.

There was a tre­men­dous strain on the pas­tors who had to con­duct do­zens of fun­er­als dai­ly. Fi­nal­ly, Martin Rink­art was the on­ly pas­tor left—doing as many as 50 fun­er­als a day.

When the Swedes de­mand­ed a huge ran­som, Rink­art left the safe­ty of the walls to plead for mer­cy. The Swed­ish com­mand­er, im­pressed by his faith and cour­age, low­ered his de­mands. Soon af­ter­ward, the Thir­ty Years’ War end­ed, and Rinkart wrote a hymn of abid­ing trust and gra­ti­tude to­ward God. It is a test­a­ment to the reality that, even through the battles of life, we can serve the Lord with joy!

May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!

– – – Pastor Cecil

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