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Rejoicing in the Lord
73
Satan wants us to feel that the Lord does not have pity for us. But
he is not telling the truth. He fills our minds with false ideas about
God. He tries to make us think about these wrong ideas instead of
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God’s goodness. He wants us to distrust God and complain about
the way He leads us.
Satan tries to make the Christian life seem dark and unhappy. He
wants it to appear hard and unpleasant; and some Christians may, by
the way they act, make people think that serving God is hard. This
makes it seem that they agree with Satan.
Many people, walking along the path of life, think and talk about
their mistakes. They talk about how they have failed, and their hearts
are filled with sorrow. A woman who had been doing this wrote to
me while I was in Europe. She was very unhappy and asked me for
some words of hope. The night after I read her letter I dreamed I
was in a garden. The one who seemed to be the owner of the garden
was leading me along its paths.
I was gathering the flowers and enjoying their sweet smell. Then
this woman, who had been walking by my side, called me to look at
the ugly thorns that were in her way. There she was, sadly crying.
She was not walking in the path or following the guide, but she was
walking among the thorns.
“Oh,” she cried, “what a pity that this beautiful garden is spoiled
with thorns.”
Then the guide said, “Let the thorns alone, for they will only
wound you. Gather the roses, the lilies, and the pinks.”
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We should think of the good times in our lives. Have we had
precious hours when our hearts were filled with joy as the Spirit of
God spoke to us? When we look back over our lives, do we see
many pleasant times? Are God’s promises like the sweet flowers
growing beside our path? Can we let their beauty and sweetness fill
our hearts with joy?
Thorns will only wound us and make us sad. If we gather thorns
and give them to other people, we are turning from God’s goodness.
We are keeping people around us from walking in the path of life.
We should not try to remember all the unpleasant things that
have happened to us in the past. We should not talk of our sins and
sorrow over them. We would soon be overcome and feel that we had
no hope. A person without hope sees only darkness. He is shutting