So many people today seek happiness ahead of all other things. Can you say that’s you too?
Hey Buckeroo.. guess what! You can be.
Here’s another question for ya: Is God happy?
Go check it out.. or look again. See what the Bible actually teaches. It tells us that...God is indeed happy and He calls us not just to holiness, but also to be happy ..in close connection with His Son as Lord of our lives.
Perhaps you’ve head this before.Yes, God is and He wants you to be happy as well. Happiness is part of the Gospel.
Isaiah 52:7 talks about the Gospel--do ya see that “H” word mixed right in there?
“How beautiful upon
the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who
publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who
publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'”
And Paul quotes this in Romans
10:15 too. God wants you spiritually well, growing, maturing, and in close fellowship with Him. He loves you and wants you in fellowship with a happy local church that is balanced and spiritually well ..instead of spiritually sick. He wants you to regularly hear Bible teaching from a born again spiritually mature dude who lives it and pastors with His wisdom.
Too many seek for happiness in sinning, but that’s not a smart option for the wages of sin is death. You don’t need that.
But happiness is based on happenings--on circumstances that we each like! And we all know that earthly circumstances can quickly change, so we shouldn’t base our lives on circumstances (Hint: that’s a half truth). How can we believers rightly say that God wants us to be happy?
Okay, so what is the reality of your life.. of my life in Christ? Romans 8 tells us that nothing at all anywhere can separate us from Christ’s agape Love, and that’s the true circumstance of my life!
“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39 nlt.Sin is fun for a season--just fleeting pleasures (see Heb 11). So do the masses of pleasure-seeking people of this world’s system have a type of happiness.. that’s totally based upon happenings that they like? So temporary, fleeting, short the pleasure is.
There is a greater happiness that supersedes all positive or negative earthly circumstances.
Sure, go check in your Hebrew and Greek lexicons what the original words are for joy--happiness, merriment, delight, and gladness are all close synonyms.
Christians are indeed supposed to be happy. In fact, we are supposed to radiate joy, peace, and contentment that is so unmistakable and so attractive that others are naturally drawn to us because they want what we have. And yet, in today’s culture, the vast majority of Christians are perceived as angry, judgmental people who don’t seem to derive any joy from life whatsoever. So why aren’t we happy?
Just and merciful Jesus was and still is hurt by people's sin--He will one day judge it. Christians already chose to have their's judged on the cross. #Ucan2ByFaith
When here, Christ grieved and felt pain at times, He was rejected and suffered loss of a whole lot. Christ is called a man of sorrows, but think about it.. He is the happiest person in the whole universe. It's true!
All God's image-bearers experience some happiness. God "satisfies your hearts with food and happiness." Acts 14:17
Oswald Chambers who I love to read, once spoke critically about happiness and clearly made it opposed to joy.We are told to, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances." 1 Thess. 5:16-18
Just cling to God’s firm promises, and go to Jesus in conversation. Pray over and mediate on His truth as is found in Jeremiah 32:40, 41.Before any of God’s creatures ever came into being i.e., the angelic or earthly persons in this equation, just ask yourself.. Q. What was God really like? A. He was happy. Still is.
Go study God’ basic persona, personality, desires, and His character.. cuz that’s who He is. Q. How is God now with you? A. Happy. Q. What will God be like in the future post Rapture and post Second Coming and Millennium? A. Happy.. and we can be happy with Him forever! Good News huh!
Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord always. It’s a choice we each must make. But we have trials, testings, tribulation at times. Does life here have to be flawless? No. Listen, sorrow and real joy can coexist.
Unfortunately, many Christians are taught early on that God doesn’t want us to be happy (he wants us to be holy sometimes with or often excluding being happy). There’s a tendency for Christians to minimize the happiness God wants them to enjoy.In fact, many Christians are laboring under the false notion that God himself is not happy. But nothing could be further from the truth! God is and He does want us to be happy.
Go read through the entire Bible again. We are wired to be happy in our God. The Word of God is filled with verses that prove that our Lord is a happy, joy-filled God who not only loves happy celebrations but also desperately wants all of his children to be happy. An obedient life with Jesus leading is truly a happy life!
Why else would He go to the lengths He did to ensure our eternal happiness in His presence? We know that we will experience unimaginable joy and happiness in Heaven, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also experience joy and happiness here on earth.
“The infinite abyss in our hearts, which might be called a vacuum, can only be filled by the infinite God Himself. We still have a trace of an ancient happiness that was in the hearts of Adam and Eve, a happiness which preceded sin and was ruined by it. But it was not utterly destroyed. Its mark is still upon us, and one day, when redemption is fully realized, God will fan it into flames again, never to be quenched. But even now, while living in the Shadowlands, we have times of burning joy, the foretaste of the eternal joy to come, the lesser streams of the JOY of which God Himself is the Fountainhead.
Pascal said this:
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” 1
It’s the blessed, joyous, happy Christians that want to go share Christ’s Good News with other people, because they unselfishly don’t want to keep it to themselves. They earnestly seek to live it and share it so that many others can become happy in the Lord as well. If they weren't that way, who down here would want what they have.
By faith gain it first in the Lord, and then export it second! Free of charge!Don't get me wrong. You might currently have fiery trials in this life. You might be in a tough period, or situation with some suffering, but you can front-load back to your present situation ..what your eternity in Jesus really is. Think about Charles Haddon Spurgeon who battled depression but ran back to God’s word for relief. Think the Holy Spirit who is interceding for you. Yes, think about God’s Scriptures, the rejoicing that God points us all to do, and to your future where you'll soon be. Your life is hid with Christ in God.
The Bible says that God "raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:6
So be happy in the Lord, again I say be happy in the Lord. Nothing shall separate you from God’s love. Real happiness begins and ends in God.
Scripture makes it abundantly clear that the Lord is the only ultimate source of real happiness. Our problem so often is.. when we start seeking happiness in temporal things, in worldly happenings, in secondary things instead of what’s really primary.. we get disappointed.
Remember that God’s home--Heaven is a very happy place and there is no other place anywhere that even compares. Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit are there. It’s where I want to arrive. Where do you?
