You've been chosen for joy!

The great Scottish theologian, William Barclay writes…

"We are chosen for joy. However hard the Christian way, it is both in the travelling and in the goal, the way of joy. There is always a joy in doing the right things. When we evade some duty or some task, when at last we set our hand to it, joy comes to us. The Christian is the man of joy. The Christian is the laughing cavalier of Christ. A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms, and nothing in all religious history has done Christianity more harm than its connection with black clothes and long faces."

Joy is the characteristic mark of all believers. It's your privilege to have inexpressible and glorious joy no matter what your circumstances.

Through loss or gain, through satisfaction or through want, you can have deep, abiding joy in your heart because Jesus has saved you, He's with you, and He will walk with you all the way home.

That's why Barclay writes that a gloomy Christian is a contradiction. Because a gloomy Christian plods along dismally in the presence of the living Christ!

So look up today and know in your heart that Jesus walks beside you. Rejoice in His presence and move forward in joy!