{"id":6661,"date":"2024-05-12T06:17:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T06:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6661"},"modified":"2024-05-12T06:17:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T06:17:44","slug":"spiritual-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6661","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Spiritual Joy!<\/strong><em>(by Octavius Winslow)<\/em><br><strong>Spiritual joy&nbsp;<\/strong>is a holy, sensitive plant.<br>It shrinks from the rude, ungentle touch;<br>from every influence uncongenial with its<br>heaven born nature. Watch it with sleepless<br>vigilance; shield it with every hallowed defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many hostile influences to which<br>it is exposed, any one of which will seriously<br>injure it. Temptation courted, sin tampered<br>with, worldliness indulged, the creature<br>idolized, means of grace slighted, Christ<br>undervalued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any one of these things will dampen your joy,<br>and cause it to shrink, and compel it to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But nothing will sooner or more effectually<br>do this than looking away from the Object<br>and Source of joy, the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is everything in Christ to make you a<br>joyful Christian. There is all redundance of<br>grace to subdue your corruptions, an<br>overflowing sympathy to soothe your sorrows,<br>a sovereign efficacy in His blood to cleanse<br>your guilt, infinite resources to meet all your<br>needs, His ever encircling presence around<br>your path, His ceaseless intercession on your<br>behalf in heaven. His loving attention of all<br>you feel, and fear, and need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, is this not enough to make your heart a<br>constant sunshine, and your life a pleasant psalm?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spiritual Joy!(by Octavius Winslow)Spiritual joy&nbsp;is a holy, sensitive plant.It shrinks from the rude, ungentle touch;from every influence uncongenial with itsheaven born nature. Watch it with sleeplessvigilance; shield it with every hallowed defense. There are many hostile influences to whichit is exposed, any one of which will seriouslyinjure it. Temptation courted, sin tamperedwith, worldliness indulged, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-octavius-winslow","category-believers-assurance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6662,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661\/revisions\/6662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}