Happiness is…but Joy is…
January 23, 2016
Happiness is finding a pencil, pizza with sausage, sharing a sandwich, and anyone or anything loved by you. Or so sings Charlie Brown.
Certainly those are very happy events but what happens to our happiness when our circumstances are not favorable towards finding a pencil, having pizza with sausage, or having a sandwich to share? Do I lose it?
The apostle Paul would have easily lost his happiness given his resume of adversity. In 2 Corinthians 11:23- 27 we read of his many sufferings. Imprisonment, floggings and lashings, shipwrecks, night and day in the open sea, in danger from rivers, bandits, and false believers. Yet, he wrote, while chained to prison guards, the joyful letter to the Philippians! Paul’s joy was never dependent upon his circumstances or possessions, but rather it was dependent upon his relationship with Jesus Christ.
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul mentions joy at least 16 times and he also mentions Christ 50 times. Paul’s joy was found not in circumstances but in Christ. To understand joy in the biblical sense, we must understand that it is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel.
Psalm 4:7 – “You have put gladness in my heart…”
Psalm 16:11– “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
John 15:11 – “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
I John 1:4– “These things I write unto you that your joy may be full.”
Charlie Brown may sing of many happy circumstances, and the Declaration of Independence may declare the pursuit of happiness to be an inalienable right, but joy is a gift from God to those who believe. True happiness is to know the Savior.
“How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!”
Psalm 144:15b