LOSS OF JOY = INCOMPLETE OBEDIENCE
F. B. Meyer: Sometimes a soul comes to its spiritual adviser, speaking thus: "I have no conscious joy, and have had but little for years." "Did you once have it?" "Yes, for some time after my conversion to God." "Are you conscious of having refused obedience to some distinct command, which came into your life, but from which you shrank?" Then the face is cast down, and the eyes film with tears and the answer comes with difficulty: "Yes, years ago I used to think that God required a certain thing of me; but I felt I could not do what He wished, was uneasy for some time about it, but after a while it seemed to fade from my mind, and now it does not often trouble me." "Ah, soul, that is where you went wrong!"
(From a sermon by Larry Wilson, The Folly of Incomplete Obedience, 8/25/2011)
