Husbands Love Your Wifes! — Keith Daniel

The Need for Cleansing and the Life-Giving Spirit

Father, keep us now under the blood, as our brother has prayed, for protection. We all unitedly agree. But wash me in the blood especially, in mercy on me, cleanse me through and through, should there be something in my baseness I overlooked, Lord, to confess, even if it was the smallest reaction that was not utterly Christlike, the smallest word that was not utterly Christlike, the smallest thought that was not holy and Christlike, forgive me.

Wash me in the blood, fill me with the Holy Spirit, anoint my lips and my heart and my mind, and come by the revelation given by the Holy Spirit, for this letter killeth, terrible danger, but the Spirit giveth life.

Oh, may thy Holy Spirit give life to all of our hearts, life to thy word, and grace for each one of us to embrace it carefully. Make this holy ground now for every single soul, that nothing will divert them or disturb them, in mercy, in Jesus Christ's name, in Jesus the Christ's name, for his sake alone.

Amen. I don't know if you need to turn to this. Most of you will quote this off by heart, and there will be a number of scriptures, so if you want to turn back and forth, fine, so long as you don't keep turning and turning, so that all we hear is pages.

Leaving and Cleaving in Marriage

Matthew 19, verse 5, Jesus said, Jesus said, for this cause shall a man leave, for this cause shall a man leave, father and mother, for this cause and this cause only, unless in a God-fearing home every member of that home is unitedly agree that it's the will of God for any other cause, outside of the cause God gives.

For this cause shall a man leave, father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife. I love that word cleave. You want a lovely Bible study? Go in the Old Testament and see how the word cleave is the word God strives to attain from his people, not believe.

Believe is not good enough, and you'll find in the Old Testament, especially this word cleave, God brings circumstances, creates circumstances again and again, toward his people or individuals, to teach them to cleave, not just believe.

He wants you to cleave, as something of a holding on. Now, this word cleave, although it's the Greek here, not the Hebrew Old Testament usage, but it's the exact same meaning. It's the same meaning. He throws it out to a husband, to a man who takes a woman, and the same thing he desires from his people, collectively or individually, throughout the Holy Bible, he calls upon a young man to do, to give, to apply himself to his wife.

For this cause shall a man leave, father and mother, and shall cleave, hold on to, in a way you will never lose, hold on to, in a way you will never lose, cleave. And they, twain, they too shall be one.

I love that. It's beyond comprehension. They too shall be one flesh. Wherefore, they are no more two, no more twain, but one, one flesh. In God's holy eyes, something sacred happens. Something so sacred in God's eyes that it is beyond our comprehension.

You are no longer looked upon as two people when you marry. It is so sacred, you are one person. You are one person in God's holy eyes at marriage. And then Jesus goes on to warn, what therefore God hath joined.

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder, let not man undo, let not man disregard or treat lightly. And if you want my wording as best as I can in my baseness and weakness and limitations, what God consecrates, let not man desecrate.

What God consecrates, let not man desecrate. A recent survey was made in your country that has spread across the world. To those who have any desire to know such things, it has shocked us across the world.

A survey was made by your government questioning millions of children, of children in school, government schools across your land. A questionnaire was placed before them from the little ones, not just the big ones, the little ones, right through school years.

And one of the questions that was asked recently in your country, one of the questions that was asked was, what do you fear most in life? That's quite a question. What do you fear most in your life? And then there was guidelines placed in front of them as examples.

Do you fear more than anything else in life? Peer pressure. It seems to me this is something people fear at school. Peer pressure to take drugs, being bullied by some bully, and out of fear to just apply yourself to what they hold out to you, or face the consequences of being ostracized or really treated cruelly, if you're not willing to be wicked.

Basically, the cry is, do you fear being bullied? Peer pressure of taking drugs by the by, a bully. There's a reason. The moment you see a child bullying others, it's a tragedy. The only reason there's such a thing as a bully is that child is hurt.

Thank you. There's a scar so deep that he's angry. He's so angry, and aggressiveness in a child is the result of deep, deep wounds. And you don't have to go far to find out what they were. 90 just walk through the door, and in a few seconds, you'll know why.

So be careful when you're dealing with a bully. But do you fear more than anything else in life? Being bullied. Peer pressure to take drugs, to do wrong, to do that which is wrong. At school, is it a fear of failing exams?

Do you know that annually, a few thousand children commit suicide worldwide if they just fail their exams at school? So much pressure is placed upon the child academically that it's a matter of life and death.

It's so abnormal, the atmosphere in the world. It's cruel. But is it failing exams, fear of failing exams that you fear more than anything else in life? Do you fear a crime, escalation of crime, as it is in the world today, where you can't pick up a newspaper that it isn't just the most atrocious crimes being committed?

Is it crime? Is it terrorism that makes the world tremble? These two buildings, the most sophisticated city in the whole world, can suddenly just be blown down by people who regard themselves as serving Allah and doing such atrocities.

Is it terrorism? Eighty percent of the millions of children who filled out that form answered this. Their greatest fear, from little toddlers to school-leaving age, 80 percent of America's children in school, public schools, said their greatest fear is that their father and mother would separate or divorce.

Eighty percent, and that's shocking, to suddenly get the pulse of children that their father and mother would separate. They're living in a fear in their homes of the general atmosphere and converse that just makes them live in one continual fear, their father and mother will divorce.

A Child's Fear of Divorce

My son, Noel, who you haven't met, some of you may have when he came over as a boy, now he's a 23-year-old man. When he was at school, we didn't have the privileges you have of a headlong start of homeschooling through people like Mr. Gothard, et cetera, who pushed for it and brought a higher qualification than you get in the government schools.

Legally, it was a battle to even think of homeschooling until recently in our country, and very few attempted to go through it because of the repercussions and the consequences. And so we had to send our children, the masses, went to school.

Now, being a colony of England, traditional schools had been set up, and it was esteemed to get into a good traditional school. We're missionaries, and our children were privileged to go to one of the best schools in the world, there's no doubt of it.

It's the oldest school in South Africa and one of the most esteemed schools in the land, but definitely one of the most esteemed in the world. I could never have afforded that, but because we were missionaries, godly people helped us, and they were the ones who generally made the choice for us.

Noel went to a very, very esteemed school, and we were grateful because it was a higher sort of quality of life that the people would be able to afford, so you expected something better in these days of moral decadence.

But one day, Noel shocked us when he came home and he said to his daddy, mommy, the standard head, the grade head, not the head of the whole school, but the head of the grade that he was in, the standard we call it in our country.

He called all the boys, united them in this big hall of the one standard, a few hundred boys, and he asked them this question during that meeting, how many of you boys' parents have divorced or are separated and no longer together?

And Noel said the hands went up around that building so that the teacher had to rephrase the question. He said, no, wait, put your hands down. How many of you, your parents have not divorced? And Noel said, daddy, I was the only one.

He made me stand. Stand, Noel. Daddy, I've never been looked at at school as I was looked at there today by all those boys, the way they looked at me. And through the day, as I walk, people just stop speaking, looking at me, something strange.

One boy walked up and said, you know, Noel, you're the first one I know, the first boy I personally know whose parents are not divorced. Another boy walked up and said, how is it that your father and mother didn't divorce?

And Noel said, the only thing I could think to say was it's because they're Christians. They love God. They serve God. I was staggered by what my son said. But is that enough? I want to ask you, the people of God today, is that enough today to be saved?

Is that enough when the salt of the earth is looked upon with contempt for many, many reasons? The standard is despised by the church of this book. Generally, anything goes, any standard is regarded as legalism, even Christ's words.

And so they're just like the world, so many who profess Christ. Oh, so much has brought the contempt in the world on us. But even amongst the evangelical conservative people, we are finding from pulpit to pew everywhere you go, divorces, marriages crumbling.

Is it enough to be saved? We need to ask ourselves again, carefully. I want you to listen carefully to God's holy word. I want us all to listen carefully tonight to God's holy word. Carefully now, in case this is going to happen to you, lady, soon.

Husbands Must Honor Their Wives

Even if your husband's a preacher. 1 Peter 3, verse 7. Likewise, ye husbands, after giving the wife all that she has to do, and most people put a full stop after there and don't want to open their eyes to anything God says to the husbands.

So I'll start with the husbands. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them, your wife, according to knowledge. Why did God say that? Remain with them. There's something about that word dwell that doesn't just sort of live with them.

You know, it doesn't mean that. There's something about remain faithful. Don't leave them. There's something of a warning there. It's not just stay with them. Otherwise, he wouldn't have even said the last part of the sentence.

According to knowledge, remain faithful, cleave, I'd like to say. I'm throwing that in, by the way, because of what I see in the words preceding this. Dwell with them according to knowledge, literally using your common sense.

That brings us down to earth. Not everything's a miracle, you know. Sometimes you just need to use the common sense you've got to stay with her, to know what will not destroy your marriage. So just use it.

And don't deny it. God gave it to you for a reason. The only difference is, if you're saved, you have a hundred mile start. And the unsaved person who hasn't got the Holy Spirit in them, you're quickened, their conscience is quickened, the mind.

According to knowledge, you stay with them, remain with them, by using your common sense, quickened by the Holy Ghost, but obey it now. Obey it, comma, giving honor. I love that. Giving honor, giving honor, do you?

How? Your children see you every day giving honor. How? When? Giving honor, unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, as unto the weaker vessel. Because she's weaker than you, show patience toward her and respect, in spite of her shortcomings and inabilities and lack of strength that you have.

She is weaker than you. Acknowledge it. God acknowledges it. Accept it. Love her in spite of it. God is saying, don't become bitter against her. If she were not weaker than you, you would be insane, sir.

Can I show you a very unhappy man in Christianity? Show me a man whose wife is not the weaker vessel. I'll show you a man in total misery, insane, in his heart. Show me a man who names Christ in front of his children, whose wife is the stronger one.

Show me a man whose wife's the real breadwinner, the achiever. You can go to great extremes. I'll show you a man in total dismay of life, despair. Thank God she's weaker. God meant it, brother. Don't hate her for being weaker.

God made it so that you can know, honor, and not shame as a man. So honor her, that she is weaker for your sake. You wouldn't know sorrow. You haven't tasted it, brother, until you taste what it is to have a wife that dominates.

It runs the show. And you submit. And I'll tell you a shock. I've been in Christian homes again and again where that's the case. In case you think it doesn't happen. And it's a grief. It is such a grief.

Don't doubt it. Giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. Knowing in spite of and because God made her weaker than you, so that you can have the dignity of being the priest of the home. Colossians 3 .19.

Love Without Bitterness

Husbands, love your wives. Why would God say that? Love your wives. Of course, why would you marry her if you didn't? And now God comes and holds this out to us and says, Husbands, love your wives. Love your wives.

And be not bitter against them. You want to read it carefully. Literally, don't allow yourself to become bitter. It can happen. It can happen. And eventually, you lose and destroy your love and affection and respect and tenderness to them if you allow bitterness toward them because they're the weaker vessel.

Full stop. Because they can't attain to everything you could or you expect a human to. Well, brother, it's good if she needs you. If she needs you to say it doesn't matter. You did your best. That's honoring her.

Husbands, love your wives. I once sat in a meeting years ago. I was a young preacher in a very, very large conference. And I know the man who preached. His name is Matt Olufea. My wife will know who this godly man is.

He's just retired from God's service. But he was the preacher. By the way, you don't retire from God's service. Sorry. He just got extra blessing. He's got pension now. Otherwise, how do you stop winning souls?

Impossible. You die winning a soul. You never retire if you're a soul winner called full time to God. Well, this man, Matt Olufea, was a greatly loved preacher. He was a greatly used man. But he stood up in that pulpit and he preached on marriage.

He decided that day he's going to preach on the Christian home. So he was quoting verses such as I am quoting. And he came to this verse. Husbands, love your wives. And then he said, can I ask you, husbands, right now to answer this in your heart?

Do you love your wife? God's looking at your heart. I want you to be honest. Or do you hate her? Please, sir, I beg you. If you're not here for God, what on earth are you doing here? If you're not here to deal with God, what are you sitting here wasting your time for?

I'm begging you. On what God says here, do you love your wives? Answer him in your heart and be honest now. Or do you love other women? Be honest now. Be honest, he said. He held back and he said, now, husbands, I'm asking you again.

Do you love your wife? Now, sitting in front of me was a very big man. He was so big, he was frightening. He was a farmer. I tried to shake his hand and all my whole hand went around with his thumb. You feel very weak, you know, when you can't get a man's hand, but you need two hands to hold that big thing.

There he stands, gentle as a lamb, but big, strong from farming. He's sitting in front of me here. Next to him sits this little woman, his wife, terrifying the difference. Now, this brother asks, do you love your wives?

Answer. Husbands, do you love? Are you in love with your wife? Do you love your wife? And this big man, listening to this question, looked down at his wife. He shouldn't have done that. She looked up at him.

And he fell in love with her as if it's the first time he ever saw her. It was disarming. He really, it was like the first time he'd ever seen anything so wonderful in his life. He literally went, oh, and I thought, stop.

She looked up and she was loving. It was like there was nobody else in the world. You know, he forgot he was surrounded by people, like me, who couldn't concentrate. The tragedy is he didn't take his eyes off her right through to the end of the sermon.

No one could concentrate, sitting right behind. All we saw was this love affair. You know, literally, you can't believe. I'm not mocking them. It was wonderful, but it was terrible to sit through a sermon.

Matt Olivier came up to me afterwards and he sweated through that. He says, did you see that? I said, could I help it? I sat right behind him. He says, I should never have done that. I'll never do it again.

It was the end of the sermon. Who could concentrate? I couldn't concentrate. I didn't know what I was saying. Dare I ask that question to you tonight, husband? Do you love your wives? Can I answer that question for you, in case you're hesitating?

By God's word, just what God says, it is to love your wife. Can I, just in case you're hesitating and not too sure of this anymore, husbands, to be honest before God, by three statements from this book.

Three statements in the light of this book will answer for you, whether you love your wife or hate her. Firstly, godly love is proven in marriage by the sanctity of a man's eyes. And don't doubt it. Your wife knows if they're not sanctified for her, faithful to her.

Godly love, firstly, is proven by the sanctity of a man's eyes. Jesus, our Lord, said in Matthew 5, 27, you've heard that it was said by them of all time, thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

But I say unto you that whosoever looketh, looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her. Hath committed adultery with her. Already in his heart. You see, God's eyes are holy and our eyes aren't.

We see through eyes that are stained by sin. God has never sinned. He's holy. He sees through eyes and he says, you've done it. It is so fruitful in God's eyes as he looks at your mind, your thoughts, as he watches your lust.

There's no worse evil attached to if you went and took her physically. Jesus says, you are guilty of adultery. You're an adulterer. Full stop. Judged with adultery. No less evil than the man who went to betray his wife fearfully.

And if thy right eye do cause thee to offend, pluck it out, Jesus says, and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

I don't believe the Lord Jesus, and I don't believe anybody who's sane in this building, even a child, would believe Christ wants us to guard thy eyesight. But what he is saying to anybody who's got the slightest bit of intelligence, let alone spiritual discernment, is, if we want to be honest, deal with it.

Deal with this. Deal with this. And if you look in the context of the verses that follow, or lose everything. You're going to lose everything. Deal with it. Don't think you're going to go on. I once sat with a godly woman, a very, very godly woman, whose husband had been one of the most godly men in our land, one of the most revered of God's servants in the nation.

His life was so exemplary, so anointed, so holy, so godly, that he was esteemed above others in their, I would say, hundreds of thousands of professing born-again Christians in our land. Preachers esteemed this man.

I know multitudes of preachers who esteemed him above everyone. I know amounts, a great amount of preachers who esteemed him above many, if not everyone. And then I, sitting beside this woman, whose husband had recently died, this godly man, at that time he had recently died, and I said to her what a blessing his life had been to me and many preachers I know.

What an example. And then I said, but you know, I want to go a step further. Your life was just equally as blessed. Because the way you stood in marriage with your husband, the joy of your marriage, the fulfillment of both of your lives as you functioned together, he became great because of you.

Your whole life was behind him in serving God together. Your marriage was an example of the believers and a wonderful blessing. And then she looked at me, this old lady, godly, Christ-like, gentle eyes, and she put her hand on my arm, just touched my arm, and she said, Keith, can I share something with you no one else knows about my husband?

She said, when I first met him, I was not saved, nor was he. But I fell in love with him mainly for this reason. He was so good looking. He was so good looking. It's not right for a man to be that good looking.

It really was. He was like just a handsome, beautiful man, she said. It just wasn't right that he was so good looking. But she said, I did fall in love with him, and he fell in love with me. But what worried me right from the start is people knew we were engaged to be married.

And I watched women in the moral decadence of this world. I watched women, I watched their eyes, their body language, knowing I'm engaged to be married in front of me, the suggestiveness of their whole being to him, they want him.

No ability to hide it, and their looseness, and their moral lack of ability to be ashamed. They just stood there crying out to him with their eyes and their body language in front of me. It disgusted me.

It put fear in my heart. But my boy, when we got married, then fear really started. Because they continued as if marriage meant nothing to a morally decadent person. They have no regard, no respect. It means nothing.

You may as well not be there. You may as well not even be standing there looking in shame at them. They don't care. It put fear in me as these women kept in the social circles we were in, in our unsaved days, just casting themselves at them in the most shameless way in their moral looseness.

But what really put fear in my heart was I watched his eyes, my boy. I looked up at him, and I looked at his eyes, and I watched them following these women. I felt defiled. I felt betrayed by his eyes.

I grieved. I trembled. I remember going on my knees and crying out to God desperately in my unsaved days. God, is there such a thing as a faithful marriage in this world with such moral looseness and decadence?

Is there such a thing? As a marriage, a marriage where a third party eventually will not come in and destroy trust and respect and faithfulness. Is there such a thing in this world where a marriage can survive without a third party eventually coming in?

And I wept. I wept. And it was amazing. Within days, oh, within days, we stayed in apartments. And in the apartment next door to us, born again Christians moved in within days after the way I groaned that to God.

And right from the start, as they looked at us and I greeted them, they were trying to witness to me. It was no mistake on God's part in allowing it because they tried within days to start witnessing and showing me my need of Christ unashamedly.

And I listened to them at first in shock that people were talking about born again and saved. But then I found myself wondering if they're real because that woman had peace in her eyes. And his eyes only looked at her, not at me like other men were.

Though I was married, I saw in that woman's face a sense of security and trust and joy and peace as she stood with her husband. And I wondered, could this be real? So I did something I've never admitted to anybody in the world.

As a young married person, I got down and put my ear against the wall. That's something for someone to admit, but I did. Oh, I listened. Are they real? Are they fighting? Is this all a sham, all a lie?

I want to know this. I listened on my knees. I just stayed there listening. They were praying. They were singing hymns at times. They were laughing, but I never heard any fighting. And on my knees one night as I was there doing this shameful thing, God said to me, God said to me, this is what you need.

This is what your need is for your marriage to remain faithful. You need to be saved. You need to become my child. I got up from my knees and I went to their door. And I said to them, I want what you've got.

You talk about salvation. Let me come in there now and lead me to your God. I want what you've got. I desperately need it. They helped me to find Christ. I reached out desperately to God as a sinner, longing for God to save my soul.

I got up from my knees and took these two people back into my apartment. And I said to my husband in front of them, I told my husband what had happened, what I've done. And I begged him, weeping. I begged him to seek God to save his soul.

I begged him for the sake of my sense of decency and self-respect, for the sake of our marriage not being destroyed. I begged him to give his life to Christ. It didn't take much. He got on his knees and he began to weep before God.

And he sought God with his whole heart. And we began to serve God together. Our social circles immediately changed. We didn't go to the places where the godless throw themselves at each other. In spite of marriage, we suddenly went and sought out godly circles, godly friends.

My boy, I never ever saw his eyes once from the day he gave his life to Christ. Betray me. I never ever was shamed by what I saw in his eyes. The two of us sought to serve God together, to encourage each other.

We got involved in serving God. Eventually, we were involved in a complete immersed way in God's service. But I never saw him betray me with his eyes. I found peace. I found joy. I found happiness. I found trust.

For one reason, his eyes, his eyes. Godly love, firstly, is proven in a marriage by the sanctity of a man's eyes. Don't doubt this. And don't ever think your wife doesn't see. There's no such a possibility.

Not one in 10 zillion. If your eyes do lust after women that your wife doesn't know and does not feel defiled, don't dare believe that. Don't dare believe that. Proverbs 31. Most of you will be able to tell me what that is.

The evidence of a faithful wife. It reveals and shows all that God says is attributed in the life of a faithful wife. That will bring her husband honor. But I would like to say that Job 31, not Proverbs 31, shows the evidence of a faithful husband.

In case you didn't think that was in the Bible. Job, this godly man, says in chapter 31 verse 1, I made a covenant with my eyes. I made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I think upon a maid? This godly man testified.

God speaks of men having eyes that cannot cease to behold sin. Oh, deal with it. Deal with it. You could lose everything, is what the cry of the Bible is. And so firstly, godly love is proven in a marriage by the sanctity of a man's eyes.

Can I ask you at this point now, very carefully, I want to ask you the question again. Husbands, do you love your wives? Will you answer God now at this stage? Do you love your wives? Or other women? In God's eyes.

God, what God says, happens. And what your wife feels and knows. And secondly, godly love is proven in a Christian marriage by the sanctity of a man's lips. Godly love is proven in a Christian marriage by the sanctity of a man's lips.

Christlike Love and the Sanctity of a Man's Lips

That's staggering, isn't it? Ephesians 5 verse 25 says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That's staggering words from God. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.

He that loveth his wife loveth himself. What does that mean? For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church. Beloved, there's such a thing as looking into this.

What does God mean? If you don't love your wife, you hate yourself. If you don't care as Christ expects us to, to give ourselves even as he gave himself for the church, to literally sacrifice our life in our love to her, is what God is saying.

No matter what it costs, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. Now this love that God expects and by grace gives us, if we require it of him in our zeal to fulfill his commandment, this love that God expects and by grace gives us, if we require it of him is found in 1 Corinthians 13.

It is speaking of a love beyond a human love. That if you don't have, you've got nothing. It's God's love, agape love. 1 Corinthians 13 is the definition, is the definition of what God speaks of when he speaks of love to a husband having for his wife.

Now what is 1 Corinthians 13? When God says love your wives, it doesn't mean just say I love you. Love suffereth long and is kind. Can I say again, do you love your wife, sir, as God says? It's not human love God's asking you.

It's agape. It's God's love that is available through you and the evidence that you are right with God and that he's in control of your life, that you truly are gone through with God, that you truly are God's responsibility, God's property that is in you.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. Always it starts with love. You can't go to the next thing unless it starts there. Love, the fruit. Love suffereth long and is kind. Are you? That's the love God's asking you when he cries out concerning the love he asks you to give your wife.

To seek God for grace, to live. If you love and care for yourself, you will love and care for your wife and reveal kindness to her as God reveals patience and kindness to you for your shortcomings. His love in you will make you reveal kindness to others and forgiveness as his forgiveness comes to you.

And don't you need it, brother? How many times did you need it this week, brother? God's love in you, if it is in you, will reveal it to your wife as the fruit of the Holy Spirit has control of your life.

Do you want to know when a man will find happiness and joy in his marriage? Do you want to know? I mean, if I gave you a piece of paper now and said, put all the answers down that you can put to your wife tonight.

Do you want to know when a man will find happiness and joy in his marriage? This will shock you. Not when his wife becomes perfect. That isn't going to make you happy in your marriage. But when in spite of all her shortcomings and failures, he finds the grace because of his commitment to God of his life and his reality to suffer long and be kind to her.

What doesn't work out in the home doesn't work at all, Andrew Murray said. Start in the home. That will give him joy and happiness in his marriage when he finds victory. Why should I say that? Well, because God says a man has joy.

A man has joy. A man has joy by the answer of his mouth. Oh. You think joy is just saying God give me joy no matter what I do? Brother, a man has joy by the answer of his mouth. It's not her victory that will eventually give him joy in the situation.

It's his victory when she fails in spite of her failures and shortcomings. When does a Christian lose joy? Why do so many Christians lose their joy? Why do many Christians have a continual heaviness of heart, a deep depression?

Though they're saved, you may think it's because of the wrongs others do to them. But actually, God's joy doesn't go if people oppose us or wrong us, brother. Or if they fail us, our greatest joy is found when they do.

That's the marvel of Christianity. In Matthew 5 .11, blessed, that word means happy. God's happiness, not the world's happiness. God's peace, not the world's peace. God's joy, not the world's joy. It's unattainable in the world.

But God's joy is attainable because of his Holy Spirit in you. Do you think the joy of the Lord is something you work yourself up to? No, it's your strength. It's because the Holy Spirit is in you, brother, sister.