You long for peace, love, and joy to fill your home, and this is a longing which the Lord Himself has planted in the human breast. It is good and right that a man should desire his own household to be a little sanctuary of quietness and a wellspring of holy delight. Indeed, the man who finds his little earthly Heaven around his own hearth is one of the happiest of men. Yet these blessings, so earnestly to be desired, do not drop from the sky like a mild shower upon the unjust and the just alike. They ascend as a precious perfume from the root of faith. This is the divine order which must never be reversed: joy and peace are the result of believing. There are many whose peace is a false peace, resting not upon the rock of Divine Truth but upon the sand of their own imaginations. If your peace springs from a mistake, it is a painted bubble, soon to burst. It is faith which looks to Christ that brings joy and peace as its consequence. To put joy first and then say, "Now I believe," is to put the cart before the horse. The principle is of constant application: in every case, the soul’s flower must have the root of faith well watered by grace before it can bloom.
My great joy, and a greater joy still for a parent, is to see children walking in truth. What a delight it is to behold a godly family springing up in comeliness, adorned with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. But this spiritual joy, a joy arising from love to God, is never found where the heart is divided or where sin is accommodated. Do not look upon the disturbance of a sinful peace as a calamity. I have known a Gospel sermon to cut so deeply into a hearer’s conscience that his first false peace was shattered, only for God to establish a second peace, a peace not based on personal righteousness, but on the perfect righteousness of Christ. There is a love of family which is a most lawful love, yet even lawful loves can be painful when they are not fully submissive to their Giver. The more we love them, the more they may cost us in seasons of trial.
Consider the Lord your God in the midst of you. He is mighty to save, and as a mighty warrior returning from the field of battle rests in his love for the home he has defended, so the Lord rests in His love for you and joys over you with singing. His love is the safe foundation for your home. But remember: if the daughter of Jerusalem has not been healed by a doctrine, it sits as a drug on the market, unprofitable for the daughters of Tyre. If our home piety is brought to nought, we have nothing to send abroad. Let your prayers for the hurting homes of others flow from a heart that first drinks deeply at the Fountain of redeeming love. If we loved Jesus better, we should be happier in Him; great love to Christ brings great joy in Christ. You cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean. The chill indifference of the human heart cannot beget love to Christ; old Adam is too strong for young Melanchthon. Only the God of all grace can create a clean heart and renew a right spirit within your family circle.
Go to Him, then, as weak, sinful, and undone, committing your soul and your household to the God of Grace. Free grace and dying love must be your sole reliance. Then you shall find it true: in Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they. Nothing shall make the good man ultimately sad. Even with sorrows surging round, the peace of Christ, the peace which whispered in the blood of Jesus, shall keep your heart and mind. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.