Everyone wants to lead a happy life right? But can you be happy all the time? You are happy for some time when you receive or enjoy something which you have wanted or craved for. You are happy when you receive a promotion. You are happy when you buy a new car which you have wanted for a long time. You are happy when your child becomes first in class. All these and similar experiences brings you happiness for some time. For a day, or may be for a few months. After that, you set your eyes on some other new craving, or achievement to bring you happiness. In short happiness does not remain constant. It depends on the material things of this world.
What about being joyful? Is this also variable? NO!
In the Bible JOY is written
as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22). When we have Jesus in our
hearts, we feel at peace and there is an inner joy which does not depend on
outward circumstances. It is written in the Bible “……Let the joy of the Lord be your strength”
(Nehemiah
8:10). In (1 Thessalonians 5:16 -18), Paul encourages us to
Rejoice
always
Pray
without ceasing
In
everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
When we are in the
midst of difficulties we do not feel like rejoicing or thanking God. But I can
tell you from experience, even when we feel sad , depressed or at our wits end,
when we just obey the above; giving praise and thanking God even if we don’t feel
happy or thankful, we soon feel joy and
peace inside us. This is very true. When
we focus on God instead of thinking about our problems, we feel secure and
confident that God will work everything out for us for our good may be not in
the way we expected or desired, but in His own way and in His own time. God is
bigger than all our problems. When we surrender every area of our life, -our
jobs, our children, our finances, everything in to His control, we have
peace. Put faith in Him because He is
able to control our circumstances and will guide us each day to do what is
necessary for that particular day. We
are short sighted- we can see only what is happening around us each day. But
God has our whole future in front of Him. We need to trust and hold on to His
promise that “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares
the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future . (Jeremiah
29:11)
Few years back, when I was working, there was a season when
the job was too hectic. Whenever the workload became too much, my colleague would
take leave, leaving all the responsibilities on my shoulders. During those days , I would get up thinking
how I could manage that day, whether I would be able to complete my work on
time or not. I was scared of messing up. I used to feel so desperate and
depressed, and have even thought of quitting. Then, when I reached the office,
before switching on my computer, I used to take a deep breath, close my eyes
and pray to God for a minute, asking Him to take control of my work and give me
the wisdom and strength to complete on time. I used to remind myself of the
promise from the Bible –“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”( Philippians
4:13).
And you know! God
never failed me even on a single day. He gave me peace and joy in my heart and
calmed me, so that I was able to deal with all the issues without any problems.
In short, joy is something we can always feel when we submit
ourselves to God. He is our Peace in the midst of our storms, our Comforter in
all our tribulations, our Counselor in all our confusions and our Joy in all
our sorrows. We can always choose to be joyful even if we cannot be happy all
the time.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. Psalms 19:8
Comments