The angel said to them, "Don't be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.
Nothing is more tormenting in the world than to think of God as being our unappeasable foe. You Christians who have lost for awhile the joy of your salvation [not your salvation, just the joy of it], you who have wandered a distance away from God, nothing can be more tormenting to you than the fear that the Lord has cast you away and will not receive you again. You backsliders, nothing can hold you back from your heavenly Father like a dread of Him. If you really knew that He is not to be dreaded with a cringing fear, you will come to him as your child does to you, and you would say, “My Father, I have offended You have pity on me! My Father, I am irritated and grieved over my sin--forgive me, receive me again into Your arms, and help me, by Your mighty grace, that from this moment on I may walk in Your commandments, and be obedient to Your will.” My dear friends, you who know anything about spiritual life, don't you feel that when you have sweet thoughts of God breathed into you from above, and have your heart filled with His special love, that it is then that you are the holiest! Haven’t you perceived that the only way in which you can grow in that which is morally and spiritually lovely, is by highly esteeming your gracious God, and feeling His precious love filling your hearts? 