Renew Our Joy, Peace, Happiness

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/25sztc

It is a really good question. “If you Christians are supposed to be going to heaven, then why don’t you act like you are happy about it?” Some Christians don’t appear to be happy about anything. It would seem that they really don’t have the joy, peace and happiness that Christians should possess.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Notice that the right we have is to pursue happiness, not to be happy. There is a difference.

Some people think that happiness comes in the form of things. “If I just get that boat then I’ll be happy.” But true happiness does not come from things, emotional hype or shallow religious experiences. True happiness comes from having the assurance that your life is found to be pleasing and righteous in the sight of God.

Let’s spend a moment to define these three words: joy, peace, happiness.

Joy: 1) the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires, 2) a state of happiness, 3) a source or cause of delight.

Peace: 1) a state of tranquility or quiet, 2) freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions, 3) harmony in personal relations.

Happiness: 1) a state of well-being and contentment, 2) a pleasurable or satisfying experience.

If we are to ask how to renew our joy, peace and happiness, we probably should first answer how we lost them.

Any action apart from God’s will robs us of the ability to have joy, peace and happiness. For all of recorded history mankind has thought that his ways would prove to be the way to happiness. But the pursuits of sex, money, power, and material things have left mankind with an empty feeling.

In Psalm 51 David pours out his heart after his sins with Bathsheba were exposed. Listen to his words in verses 10-13.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted to You.

David understood that true joy, peace and happiness would elude him until he made things right with God. He prayed for a clean heart and a renewed spirit in order to live in the way that God desired him to live.

Obedience to the way of God becomes a critical key to our future joy, peace and happiness. Listen to the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 28:1-2.

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God.

Imagine that! If we obey the commandments of God we can expect that blessing shall come upon us and overtake us. Friends, the key to being full of joy, peace and happiness begins with obeying the will of God.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we take a critical look at ourselves and where we stand with God. May we make adjustments today that will allow us to better obey God and be better positioned to find joy, peace and happiness in our life.

Our thought for the day: “Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” Mark Twain

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.