Joy is the first sign of a living faith. An unspeakably inexhaustible joy is created at the very moment that faith becomes living in your heart. Faith is full assurance. Heb. 11. When a man has won 50,000 kroner in a lottery, he is not sure that he can trust his own eyes; he also lets others look at the list of winning numbers. He thinks that it might be a printing error, and so he still doesn’t believe. He does not yet have that certainty in his heart. Consequently, he goes to the lottery office, and there he is finally assured, he comes to a living faith. At this moment—when he really becomes a believer—joy comes quite spontaneously. At moments like that, joy can apparently be quite overwhelming. And yet, what is winning 50,000 kroner compared to gaining eternal glory? It is so close to nothing that no language can express how small it is! Eternal glory is worth unspeakably more than, for example, 50 billion kroner. When a poor man can be beyond himself for the sake of 50,000 kroner, then what about unspeakably much more than 50 billion kroner? When we believe that it is true, what then? Can you, after you have considered this weak and simple illustration, say that you have acquired this living faith? Have you in spirit and in truth been to the “lottery office”? Do you possess such faith today? Does your constant and overflowing joy prove this? Can all those with whom you associate confirm it? If not, then you have still not satisfied yourself properly about the correctness of the winning numbers list, or you have fallen asleep again. You are still not aware of how unspeakably rich you are. At the very instant that your faith becomes living—becomes true—you will become exceedingly happy. This blessedness lasts as long as you live in this faith.Elias Aslaksen