There is a difference between our personal pursuit of happiness versus learning how to live with Godly joy. First and foremost, God's desire for us is to repent and be saved. Repent means to turn away from something, to stop doing it and surrender to God, putting His desires over our own. Only then can we experience true joy and lasting, meaningful happiness by putting God first in our lives. Only then are we loving God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. If we are not putting God first in our lives, then any happiness we experience will most likely be worldly happiness. Worldly happiness is fleeting and always contingent upon the circumstances or people in our life. True happiness, ie: Godly joy, is contingent only upon our relationship with God and remains unaffected by the rollercoaster of circumstances and choices that make up our life.
Those who feel like they have been
cheated or robbed of happiness throughout their lives become consumed with the
pursuit of it. They are convinced,
"God wants me to be happy. God
wants me to be happy" when the fact
is, God wants them to be saved, to get right with Him, to have consistent
intimate fellowship with Him and to put Him first in all things. We want
God to be our Savior and to make us happy, however we are much more reluctant
for Him to be Lord over our life and to teach us how to have joy. God doesn't want our happiness, He wants our
joy. Why settle for good when God wants
to give us His best? Our pursuit of
happiness is not God's best. Our
salvation and righteousness, which lead to joy, are. Only
through right standing with God can we have the joy that God desires for
us. For those who have the ears to hear
this and the heart to receive it, let go of the worldly illusion of happiness. Let it go.
Close your ears to this world, surrender yourself to God, truly make Him Lord of your life, let go of
the fear of unhappiness, fall into consistent, intimate fellowship with Him and
let Him bring you into right standing with Him where you will surely experience
true joy, a joy that cannot be shaken nor taken away.
Truly, as I've previously stated, if
given the choice, God would rather us die unhappy yet saved from our sins, than
happy and lost in our sins. If given the
choice, God chooses the salvation of our souls over the happiness of our
heart. If given the choice, God chooses
the pursuit of righteousness over the pursuit of pleasure. Granted this may be a hard truth to swallow,
but it is a truth nonetheless. There are
many uncomfortable truths in scripture, but we don't like to think about those,
we only like to share and think about the ones that make us feel,......well,......."happy". That puts me in an unpopular position because God's call upon my life is to speak
truth, and quite often that makes me the party-poopin' bad guy. People that God uses to remind His church of
the truths in His Word in which we often forget or ignore, can seem like
"Debbie Downer" or "Eeyore" to those who are offended by
such truths. Anyone who busts up in a
room and reminds God's people that our earthly lives are a battle ground, not a
play ground, well, no one really wants to invite them back to the party. That is why God gives tough skin, a bold
spirit and a steel resolve to those whom He calls to such a task. Thankfully we are the "Body of
Christ", which means those of us who are called into one ministry are
balanced by those who are called into another, yet we all work together to
glorify God, bear Him fruit and serve each other.
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