October 12, 2019 – Luke 1:46–47

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
—Luke 1:46–47

Is there any true praise without joy?10 Isn’t praise the twin to joy? And do not joy and praise always dwell together? Rejoice, then, beloved, in your Savior—in him above everything else. Never let any earthly thing or any person stand higher in your joy than Jesus Christ. Rejoice in him as most surely yours, for, dear believer, Christ is yours. If you are resting in him, he belongs to you, so rejoice in your own Savior, for all of Christ is yours—not half a Savior; not one of his wounds for you and one for me, but all his wounds for you and all for me; not his thoughtful head for you and his loving heart for me, but his head and his heart all for you and all for me—he is my Savior from his feet that were pierced by the nails to his head that was crowned with thorns.
If the fact that Christ is ours involves the bearing of the cross, we are glad to bear it. It may involve suffering and shame and a thousand temptations and trials; if it is so, each true believer can say with Mary, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior”—in what he is, in what he is to me, in what he is to all his children, in what he is to poor sinners, in what he is to God, in what he will be when he comes again, and in what he will be throughout eternity. Do as much as you can of all good things, but still there must be times for quiet meditation, times for reading, times for praying, and times for praising. There is no waste about such times; they are among the best-spent hours that we ever have. You and I, beloved, are the living to praise God. This is the culmination, the very apex of the pyramid of existence, pointing straight up to heaven—that we praise God with all our hearts and souls.
Prayer and praise are two of the sure signs of a true-born heir of heaven. If you never praise God, my friend, you can never go to heaven. Until the Lord has taken out of you the praise of other things and the love of other things and given you the grace to love him and praise him, you cannot enter his glory. Begin now to praise that God who freely forgives the greatest sin and who is willing to cleanse the very worst sinner, for he has given Christ to die, the just for the unjust, that he may bring them to God. Oh, begin to glorify him and rejoice in him now, and you will never want to leave off doing so, world without end.
—C. H. Spurgeon