"I sing
because I'm happy,
I sing because I'm free,
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know he watches me."
This song is
a song of faith. In reality every song is a song of faith.
Faith is the basis of happiness. It is the inspiration of
song. We return to the theme of faith here because faith
is central and vital. Christian faith is what makes the
Christian life so joyous. There are many who call
themselves Christians who are not joyous. That is because
they do not have an active faith. Paul was radiantly
joyful solely because he was a man of deep and settled
faith and had the assurance that comes from such a faith.
Again we quote his words, "The life that I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God."
To Paul,
Christ was real. His relations with him were real. On that
stormy sea journey that ended in shipwreck Paul could say
to those in danger with him that all would be well, that
not a life would be lost. He could speak confidently
because the angel of the Lord had stood by him and had
given him the assurance of faith.
God promised,
"My presence shall go with thee." That promise
has been a comfort and consolation to God's people for
three thousand years. We need to cultivate a sense of
God's presence. He has said, "I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee." His presence with us is real
whether or not we can realize its reality. We need not try
to create a sense of its reality in our imagination. It is
a fact, not a thing of fancy. We have only to sense the
fact and to treat it as a fact. We may say that God is
everywhere. True, but it is not his presence everywhere
that counts for us; it is only that part of everywhere
where we are. God is just as real in that little part of
everywhere where you and I now are as he is in heaven on
his throne. It is his presence where we are that really
counts for us. Therefore it is the sense of the reality of
his presence with us that makes him real to us.
The Psalmist
said, "Thou art with me." To be able to say this
means much. First of all it means safety. The story of how
one of God's children came to realize her safety in the
abiding presence of God is told by Mrs. Pearsall Smith:
"I was attending a prayermeeting when a poor woman
rose to speak and I looked at her wondering what she could
say, little thinking she was to bring a message to my
soul. She said she had great difficulty in living the life
of faith on account of the second causes that seem to
control nearly everything that concerned her. Her
perplexity became so great that she began to ask God
whether he was in everything or not.
"After
praying for a few days she had what she described as a
vision. She thought she was in a perfectly dark place and
that there advanced toward her from a distance a body of
light which gradually surrounded and enveloped her and
everything about her. As it approached a voice seemed to
say, 'This is the presence of God.' While surrounded with
this presence all the great and awful things of life
seemed to pass before her —fighting armies, wicked men,
raging beasts, storms and pestilences, sin, and suffering
of every kind.
"She
shrank back at first in terror but she soon saw that the
presence of God so surrounded and enveloped each one of
these that not a lion could reach out his paw nor a bullet
fly through the air except as his presence moved out of
the way to permit it and she saw that let there be ever so
thin a sheet as it were of this glorious presence between
herself and the most terrible violence not a hair of her
head would be ruffled nor anything touch her unless the
presence divided to let the evil through. It was so also
with the small and annoying things of life. Her difficulty
vanished. Her question was answered forever. God was in
everything and the angel and his presence saved her."
We shall not
all have such experiences to cause us to realize the
presence of God and our safety therein. God has other ways
of bringing this about. We may greatly help by continually
assuring ourselves that God is with us. If we should say
to ourselves in our times of difficulty or danger,
"God is with me; I am safe," we would presently
come to feel safe no matter what the circumstances. If we
should repeat over and over to ourselves in our times of
need, "God is with me; God will help me," it
would come to be a reality with us. It is real whether or
not we realize it, but it profits us in our consciousness
only when we realize it.
We need the
sense of God most when we need his help and sustaining
grace. It is in the times of storm tha we appreciate
shelter. So we need to realize the sheltering presence of
God in life's storms. We can do much toward cultivating a
state of mind that recognizes God presence in our darkest
times. We must not wait for t! dark times to begin this
development. We should develop it under favorable
circumstances, then bring the consciousness of God's
presence into the unfavorable time until it becomes as
real in the unfavorable time in the more favorable time.
The sense of
God's presence sometimes comes from our emotions. This is
only in the favorable season In the unfavorable seasons it
can come to us only through faith. Therefore the need of
cultivating a sense of his presence through our faith. Our
faith will be tested with respect to this as with other
things. The more faith is tested and tried when it meets
and endures, the more it grows.
We need to
learn to use our faith. We should form the habit of daily
accomplishing something by our faith. We should pray every
day the prayer of faith for some definite thing. We cannot
do this if we scatter our prayers too much. We cannot
concentrate faith on many things at one time. We can have
a general faith that takes in all our needs and this we
can exercise daily, but we need a particular exercise of
faith to receive particular things, particular help, and
particular grace. We should pray for many things, but
there are so things on which we should specialize. We
should make them a special object of prayer. We should
choose something that we feel to be the will of God for
us.
Then we
should pray for that thing until it is granted, until
faith grasps its object and makes it a reality.
When we pray
for many things and do not exercise definite faith for
definite answers we weaken rather than strengthen our
faith. It tends to make our faith ineffective. We should
use faith nob only in prayer but in both the little things
and in the greater things of life. There are many
opportunities every day to exercise faith. Little acts of
faith build character, and bring success and happiness. It
is by the exercise of definite faith or acting out faith
in our lives and holding the attitude of faith that
develops faith and prepares us for the difficulties that
may come.
Every
exercise of faith prepares us the more easily to exercise
it next time. Every recognition of the working power of
faith in our lives and the things accomplished by it make
UB more capable of using faith. The use of faith in this
way in the little things of life gives us a sense of God's
partnership with us, of his continuous help. Sometimes we
realize very greatly our need of help. Do we realize his
willingness to give that help and do we act upon such a
realization? It has been said that God helps those that
help themselves, but I think God loves best to help those
who cannot help themselves. I think that those who are
faint and weak with the toils of life and those whose
courage falters may more than any others have cause to
believe that God will help them. God is not looking for
opportunities to help those who need no help. His help is
for those who stand in need of it and who must have it. To
such it is freely given when they trust him.
"I sing
because I'm happy,
I sing because I'm free,
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know he watches me."
So many say,
"Oh, if I knew how to have faith." One thing
that may help is this, "Never let what you do know be
weakened by what you don't know. Stick to what you do
know." Always remember that the things you do know
whatever they are, are facts. Nothing can change them. The
things you don't know but only fear and are uncertain of
never can change the facts that you do know. So settle
down on the things you do know. Do not doubt them. Do not
question them. Rely upon them. Then base your attitude
toward the things you do not know upon your attitude
toward the things you do know. This will always give you
certainty up to a certain point and will indicate what
must lie beyond that point. So make facts your foundation.
Stand upon the known while you face the unknown.
James said we
should show our faith by our works. If we believe in God
we ought to act like it. "He thinks he believes it
but he doesn't," said a woman of a man who had been
professing his faith in the gospel. "If he really
thought he had a friend like that, rich enough and strong
enough to help him in every trouble and willing to do it,
too, somebody that is sending him blessings all the while
he is here and getting a beautiful home prepared for him
to use afterward—do you suppose he would go about so
gloomy and discouraged like all the time?" Assuredly
not. When we really believe a thing our conduct is in
harmony with our belief. So, if we really believe God's
promises we shall be joyful Christians.
We should
truly believe and have the will to put that belief into
our deportment. We should have the will to be cheerful,
bright, and pleasant. We should keep our troubles out of
our eyes, out of our voice, and out of our movements. We
should not advertise that we have trouble. The more we
allow our physical attitude, the tone of our voice, and
the look in our eyes to depict discouragement, defeat, or
uncertainty, the more we shall have within to overcome.
God meant us to be victorious, so let us adopt the
attitude of victory and say, "Since God meant me to
be victorious I mean to be victorious. It is my right to
be victorious. Through God's help I will be victorious. I
am victorious." This attitude will go far toward
making us victorious and toward making us realize our
victoriousness.
There are
times when our faith grows weary, when we find it
difficult to exercise. As many have said, we may say after
long efforts, "My faith is worn out." At such
times we may find it difficult to pray. At such times
people are inclined to mistrust their own experiences and
question whether they are right with God or what is the
matter with them. Alice E. Worcester tells what she does
under such circumstances in the following lines,
"When I am
very weary I do not try to pray,
I only shut my eyes, and wait
To hear what God will say."
There are
times in life when we can only hold still and wait. At
such times that is all God requires of us. That is all
that is necessary. If God does not speak when we wait to
hear him speak we may be sure that he will speak when it
is needful for him to speak, and when he speaks he will
cause our hearts to rejoice. In these times of weariness
we should not let down our faith. We should rest in faith.
We have said
that faith brings joy. Over in far off Africa on the Congo
River stands a native village. Formerly its inhabitants
were sunk in ignorance and lived in mud huts that abounded
in filth. A missionary went to the town and proclaimed to
them the gospel message. They heard, believed, and
accepted it and were saved. They were transformed and set
about the transformation of their town. To celebrate the
great change that had come they changed the name of the
town and now it is known as Joy Town. Christ can make our
town, any town, Joy Town to us.
Let us not
forget that what life is depends upon what we are, and
what we see depends upon how we look. The Sunday-School
Times tells an old fable, "A cold firebrand and a
burning lamp started out one day to see what they could
find. The firebrand came back and wrote in its journal
that the whole world was dark. It did not find a place
wherever it went in which there was light. The lamp came
back and wrote in its journal, 'wherever I went it was
light.' What was the difference? The lamp carried its
light with it and illuminated everything. The dead
firebrand had no light and everywhere it went everything
was dark."
To sum up our
thoughts, the secret of the singing heart consists in
learning to be what we ought to be and to hold the
attitude we ought to hold toward life. It consists in
learning to adjust ourselves to our circumstances and to
be happy in those circumstances. It means to take
advantage of those favorable things that come in life, to
make the best of the here and now and to look forward to
the future with confident expectation of success and with
determination to have success. It consists in walking with
God, believing in him, and acting out that belief day by
day. Doing this we shall be ever blessed and ever happy.
We shall have joy and happiness, and "sorrow and
sighing shall flee away."
