{"id":3,"date":"2007-08-07T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2007-08-07T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=3"},"modified":"2007-10-03T15:32:52","modified_gmt":"2007-10-03T22:32:52","slug":"salvation-joy-by-pastor-cecil-a-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/salvation-joy-by-pastor-cecil-a-thompson\/","title":{"rendered":"“SALVATION JOY!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Psalm 51:10-12<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.\u00a0Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.\u00a0Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last week I mentioned an incident from my childhood while attending church.\u00a0As a matter of fact it is amazing how often my mind goes back to those long ago days.\u00a0In some instances I can recall the names of the people in our small church, and in others I can only recall their faces or behavior.<\/p>\n

There was one woman who sat across the church from where we usually sat.\u00a0When the opportunity came for people to share a testimony, she would always be one of those who shared.\u00a0The problem was that she was a pickle-puss.\u00a0By that I mean a dill pickle-puss.<\/p>\n

Not only did her face look like she had been baptized in vinegar, but her actions were just as sour as her facial expressions.\u00a0Most of us kids did not like to be around her since she would snarl at us about something.\u00a0I have no idea what had happened to make her so bitter, but she exuded it.<\/p>\n

Across the years I have met more people like her.\u00a0The tragic thing is that\u00a0unsaved people\u00a0often get the idea that this is what all Christians are like.\u00a0They conclude that to be a Christian means that you have to\u00a0lack of joy and enjoyment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is it possible for a born again Christian to have such joy and happiness within that it oozes to the surface?\u00a0The answer is a resounding, YES!\u00a0Not only is it possible for we Christians to have joy within, it is vital.\u00a0Without the sincere inner joy of soul there is hopelessness.\u00a0In Proverbs 29:18 we read, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint;\u00a0But happy is he who keeps the law.”<\/p>\n

In today’s Scripture we read a prayer of David after being confronted\u00a0by Nathan the prophet about his sin with Bathsheba.\u00a0I read in David’s prayer a desire to return to the joy of his salvation which had disappeared when he\u00a0had allowed sin to reign in his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It tells me that God’s gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, brings joy.\u00a0We can call it–SALVATION JOY!\u00a0It is that inexpressible lift of spirit in knowing that our sins have been forgiven and that we have been given the precious gift of eternal life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sin robs us of our joy and makes us miserable inside and outside.\u00a0The way we can find that joy once again is to pray as David prayed, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.\u00a0Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.”<\/p>\n

As we sincerely pray that prayer, we can be assured that the Lord will hear and draw us close to His heart.\u00a0The closer we come to God, the greater our joy.\u00a0Let me close with\u00a0an old hymn that contained these words, “It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the truth has never yet been told!”\u00a0That’s the joy I want!<\/p>\n

Blessings dear hearts.\u00a0Walk with God\u00a0today, trust Him completely, and be a blessing.<\/p>\n

– –\u00a0– Pastor Cecil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psalm 51:10-12 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.\u00a0Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.\u00a0Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Last week I mentioned an incident from my childhood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-e-votionals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}