Yay! Happiness!
I can remember when I started working and earning my own salary that I felt so blessed! I was earning MONEY!!! Actual money!!!
I had never had my own money and this was an exciting moment! Whoop! Whoop!
Possibilities seemed endless…
I would pay my board and lodging to my parents, keep money for bus fares, lunches and I would have money left over!
Decisions…I could buy some clothing or I could buy something for my trousseau. Yes, we girls did that in those days.
I was soon to find out that what I had left over wasn’t all that much.
Fading happiness…
It wasn’t long and I would see things that I wanted to buy but I couldn’t afford.
My happiness at having my own money started to fade…oh, if only I could earn more than I could afford that…
Happiness delayed...
Later I was to find out that even when I was earning more…I was never really satisfied.
More money meant I could buy more initially but my eyes soon expanded my desires and so I began to live for when I can get 'this'...then I’ll be so happy!
That moment of satisfaction never lasts because soon your greedy little eyes see the next best thing that you need to make you happy!
I came to realize that making my happiness dependent on “stuff” was a worthless and selfish pursuit. I became more content and settled down to being a working adult.
Happiness transferred…
The desire for happiness doesn’t go away though.
We are continually being fed with images by the media, magazines and movies that stir up a hunger for something that we lack in our lives - Romantic movies make us long for our own love story.
The pursuit of the things of this world will keep us captive and never satisfied.
Joy however…
Joy, however is something completely different to happiness.
Joy becomes yours when you get saved.
The minute that I found out that I could have a brand new start with God, joy arose in my heart! I was so grateful that God was a loving God who had provided a way of escape through the Lord Jesus Christ...it was like someone had opened the curtains in a darkened room to let the glorious light shine in! I was saved!
Isaiah 41:11 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
The joy you receive when you get saved becomes strength to you.
Nehemiah 8:10 for the joy of the Lord is our strength.
Joy is mine because I have been given the righteousness of God to stand before God!
Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness…
Psalm 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of my salvation; and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Moment of truth…
Whatever we feed – will grow and by the same token…whatever we starve, will die.
If our focus remains fixed on accumulation of stuff and self...we will continue to live on the treadmill that the world has designed to keep us captive and often in debt.
Yet if we focus on what God has done for us and on the journey He has designed for us...hope arises, a joyful expectation arises! It's a brand new day!
There is joy to be found at the foot of the Cross...
From my heart to yours,
Have a blessed week,
XXX
Sylvia
