When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. (Ro.12:15).

I suspect that for many people it is in some ways harder to ”Rejoice with those who rejoice” than it is to ”mourn with those who mourn”?

What is it that can make it hard for us to celebrate someone else’s blessing and success?

Martyn Lloyd Jones observed:

‘Because the one rejoicing has probably had a great success or bit of good fortune. Then this element of competition comes in…. It’s innate within human nature. We want to become high and great and important. It is one of the main things that happened to man after the Fall: he became proud and self-centered…

And so we find it easy to sympathize with people who are not successful. They are not in competition with us. We feel we are in a better position. We’re up and they’re down, so we can afford to weep with them. It’s more or less natural.‘

Abigail Wallace also notes: ‘…the self-preoccupied- whether with disappointment and hurt or with a sense of superiority- find it hard to rejoice in another’s success.’

PRAYER: Lord, please forgive us for pettiness, and small-heartedness – for the selfish jealousy which cripples us inside, and diminishes us in stature. Enlarge our hearts, and may the fruit of the Spirit grow abundantly within us.

‘Enlarge, inflame and fill my heart with boundless charity divine…’ Charles Wesley