A Dose From The Doctor

In view of Tim's recent posts dealing with joy, it seemed that a dose of medicine from "the Doctor"-----Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones that is------- may be beneficial, and serve to reinforce the importance of joy in the Christian life that Tim has been pressing upon us. From the classic book that helps to bring joy by addressing the opposite of joy, "Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cure", we find these words from "the Doctor":

In a sense a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms, and he is a very poor recommendation for the gospel. We are living in a pragmatic age. People today are not primarily interested in Truth but they are interested in results. The one question they ask is: Does it work? They are frantically seeking and searching for something that can help them. Now we believe that God extends His Kingdom partly through His people, and we know that He has oftentimes done some of the most notable things in the history of the Church through the simple Christian living of some quite ordinary people. Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people, looking at us, the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who 'scorns delights and lives laborious days'. There are many indeed who give this as a reason for not being Christian, and for giving up all interest they may ever have had in the Christian faith. They say: look at Christian people, look at the impression they give! And they are very fond of contrasting us with people out in the world, people who seem to be so thrilled by the things they believe in, whatever they may be. They shout at their football matches, they talk about the films they have seen, they are full of excitement and want everybody to know it; but Christian people too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and of absence of joy. There is no question at all but that this the main reason why large numbers of people have ceased to be interested in Christianity. And, let us be quite frank and admit it, there is a sense in which there is some justification for their attitude, and we have to confess that their criticism is a fair one. It behooves us, therefore, not only for or own sakes, but also for the sake of the Kingdom of God and the glory of the Christ in Whom we believe, to represent Him and His cause, His message and His power in such a way that men and women, far from being antagonized, will be drawn and attracted as they observe us, whatever our circumstances or condition. We must so live that they will be compelled to say: Would to God I could be like that, would to God I could live in this world and go through this world as that person does (pgs. 11-12).

I wonder what impression is being given to those who observe my life? Is it implying "that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who 'scorns delights and lives laborious days'"? Or, is it as described in 1 Peter 1:8 - "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy inexpressible and filled with glory"? I hope it is increasingly the latter.