“GOD HATH MADE ME TO LAUGH.”
By Cyrus Simmons
GOD wants all who believe on Him to be happy. “But let all ‘those that put their trust in Thee rejoice; let them ever shout ‘for joy, because Thou defendest them; let them also that ‘love Thy name be joyful in Thee.” Ps. 5:11. Joy is the fruit of the Spirit. Gal. 5:22. “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out ‘of the wells of salvation.” Isa. 12:3. Christ wants to dwell in His children. 2 Cor. 13:5. “Know ye ‘not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God ‘dwelleth in you?” 1 Cor. 3:16. This close relationship between God and man has hitherto been a mystery, “but now is made manifest ‘to His saints.” Col. 1:26. The fact that Christ is in you, “the ‘hope of glory’” (Col. 1:27) makes the heart rejoice in the salvation of God. Ps. 13:5. The heart rejoices to know that God hears and answers the suppliant’s prayers. “If ye abide in Me, and My words ‘abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto ‘you.” John 15:7. “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name; ‘ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:24. It is joy to the believer that his sins are forgiven and that God will save him from his sins. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He ‘shall save His people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21. When Paul and Silas were miraculously delivered from the Philippian jail by the great earthquake that suddenly shook its foundation, we are told that the jailer, after hearing the Gospel, “rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.” Acts 16:29–34. The eunuch, who heard Philip and was baptized by him, “went on his ‘way rejoicing.” Acts 8:35–39. The psalmist says, “Let the heart ‘of them rejoice that seek the Lord.” Ps. 105:3. When the three angels visited Abraham in the Plain of Mamre and told him that his wife should have a son, Sarah, being then well stricken in age, “laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old ‘shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the Lord said ‘unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a ‘surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the ‘Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to ‘the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, ‘saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And He said, Nay; but ‘thou didst laugh.” Gen. 18:1–15. “And the Lord visited Sarah ‘as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. ‘For Sarah conceived, and bear Abraham a son in his old age, at the ‘set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the ‘name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bear to him, ‘Isaac. . . . And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” Gen. 21:1–3, 6. The word “Isaac” means “laughter.” He was born by the word of God. All who believe, or hear, are redeemed or recreated or born from above by the self-same word. All are Isaacs in that they laugh and rejoice in the salvation of God. CYRUS SIMMONS.