The other day, one of my closest friends asked me a question. This question made me think long and hard. I didn’t want to give a quick “Sunday school answer;” I wanted to put some real thought in this. As I got to thinking, I realized this is a question I haven’t fully comprehended yet either, so I’ve figured that there are many other people who are searching for the answer to this too.
The question was “how do you find happiness in Christ?”
The first thing I’d like to discuss is the difference between joy and happiness. God never actually promises happiness to us. Happiness is situational, a feeling and circumstantial. While joy is like a life style, it’s a perspective, it’s more than just happiness. It’s being able to look at situations, even when they suck, to know that God is in control, and find peace and hope knowing that his plans are always better. His plans are for good, for those that love him. His plans are to prosper us- grow us, stretch us, mature us. His plans are better than we can even imagine for ourselves (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Ephesians 3:20). Happiness is a result, or a part of joy, but not what you actually want or need. joy is a characteristic of the spirit (Galatians 5:22), so the more you know God’s heart, the more you’re filled with God’s heart, the more you’ll have it in your own heart. Happiness is what we want, but what God has for us is always better than what we want.
There are a few ways to receive this joy: through surrendering yourself, through obedience/ living in God’s will, through living in God’s presence, and ultimately through knowing God.
You need to surrender your plans. You need to surrender your future. you need to get to a place where you know so much about God and his heart that you can trust him, even when things don’t make sense. When you haven’t surrendered control of your life, you get stressed. You also become worried. If any little thing goes wrong, or doesn’t go your way, the world seems to fall apart. Something as big as your future wasn’t meant to sit in hands as small as yours.
Surrender is waking up today and saying “God use me today. Speak through me today. When people encounter me, let them see you through me and not even notice me”
Surrender is doing the things that glorifies God. It’s not giving in to your worldly desires.
John 13:7 gives me so much joy, because it gives me hope. It shows me that even when I don’t understand, God does. He has a plan, and his plan is good because he is good, and everything he does and makes is good.
Also, I’ve found that when I’m living in God’s will and in obedience to his plan, I get rewarded. His rewards come in different ways: whether it’s a blessing, or a material object, but also being filled with his presence, which includes all his characteristics- including joy. When I obey I feel purposeful. God has a purpose for us and unless we’re living in that will, we won’t feel like we have purpose. God blesses obedience. He moves in obedience. Obedience is heaven brought to earth. It is his plan being revealed and acted upon on earth. Obedience is how promises are fulfilled. And there is so much joy when God’s promise is fulfilled in your life. He also is closer to you when you are in his will and being obedient because you haven’t allowed the disobedience, or other sins get in between you and him. This looks different for everyone, but your obedience to his call and his will is so important in receiving his joy.
You need to spend time with God. As much time as you can. You need to fill your mind, your thoughts, your time with his truth. You get to know him and his heart when you spend time with him. There is fullness of joy in his presence (Psalm 16:11).
You get his presence through worship because he says he inhabits the praise of his people (Psalm 22:3). I love worship because I can tell God how great he is, how thankful I am, and how much I love him, but also worships reminds me and my heart about how great he is and how much I need him. Worship is his house. Worship is where he is. That’s why the music part of church is my favorite part because I sense him so much, but worship isn’t only in music. Worship is in serving; it’s in being generous. Worship is using your gifts and talents that he’s given you for his glory. We are gifted for God’s glory. Worship can just be in prayers; telling him how much you love him, how thankful you are, how great he is.
Also, his presence is in his word. The more you know his word, the more you know him. The more you see how he speaks, and what/how he thinks through the Bible. The more you can hear him speak to you. I’ve always been troubled by the fact we can so easily hear the devil’s lies as he fills your brain with questions of your self-worth, adding doubt to your faith, hateful thoughts towards others, etc. We can clearly hear, “You’re not good enough,’ “You’re not worthy,” “You won’t amount to anything,” “You’re ugly,” etc.. Why is it that we hear the devils voice so much easier and constant than God’s? Because we aren’t filling our mind with Godly truths. We are surrounded by the world, by unholiness, unrighteousness, so the devil sneaks in a lot easier. This is why we have to spend time in prayer and in worship and in his word, so that we can know his voice and start hearing it louder.
I know the last thing I want when I’m down is to read my Bible, (even though I know it’s what I need) because this is a tactic of the devil to stop you from hearing from God. If you don’t feed your mind with truth, his lies are harder to combat, and easier to hear. He wants you to live in this spirit of loneliness and sadness, so he tries to stop you from spending time with God because as soon as you do you’ve beat him.
God says seek me with all your heart and you’ll find me, so spend time searching who he is and learning about his character so that he can fill you with his spirit.
Essentially, the closer you are to God, the more joy you’ll have. You get close to God through spending time with him and learning his voice, and also worshiping him and allowing his presence to invade your life.
