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Gather About the Cross, August 28
Ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put
your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath
blessed thee.
Deuteronomy 12:7
.
Anciently the Lord bade Israel, when they met together for His service, “Ye
shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand
unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.” That
which is done for the glory of God should be done with cheerfulness, with songs of
praise and thanksgiving, not with sadness and gloom.
Our God is a tender, merciful Father. His service should not be looked upon
as a heart-saddening, distressing exercise. It should be a pleasure to worship the
Lord and to take part in His work. God would not have His children, for whom so
great salvation has been provided, act as if He were a hard, exacting taskmaster. He
is their best friend; and when they worship Him, He expects to be with them, to
bless and comfort them, filling their hearts with joy and love. The Lord desires His
children to take comfort in His service and to find more pleasure than hardship in
His work. He desires that those who come to worship Him shall carry away with
them precious thoughts of His care and love, that they may be cheered in all the
employments of daily life, that they may have grace to deal honestly and faithfully
in all things.
We must gather about the cross. Christ and Him crucified should be the theme
of contemplation, of conversation, and of our most joyful emotion. We should keep
in our thoughts every blessing we receive from God, and when we realize His great
love we should be willing to trust everything to the hand that was nailed to the cross
for us.
The soul may ascend nearer heaven on the wings of praise. God is worshiped
with song and music in the courts above, and as we express our gratitude we
are approximating to the worship of the heavenly hosts. “Whoso offereth praise
glorifieth” God (
Psalm 50:23
). Let us with reverent joy come before our Creator,
with “thanksgiving, and the voice of melody” (
Isaiah 51:3
) (
Steps to Christ, 103,
104
).
If you call God your Father you acknowledge yourselves His children to be
guided by His wisdom and to be obedient in all things, knowing that His love is
changeless. You will accept His plan for your life. As children of God, you will
hold His honor, His character, His family, His work, as the objects of your highest
interest. It will be your joy to recognize and honor your relation to your Father and
to every member of His family. You will rejoice to do any act, however humble,
that will tend to His glory or to the well-being of your kindred (
Thoughts from the
Mount of Blessing, 105
).
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