Find Happiness

It’s easy to look back on certain points in life and think ‘that year was my best year because___’ or ‘life was better when___’ or ‘I was a better person back when___’  …

What if instead of focusing on why 2013 was your best year, or how you wish it was 2009 again, you turn those thoughts into why 2019 has been an amazing year?  Instead of wishing you have the kind of happiness you had last summer, think about the incredible joy you have/can have now.  How you’ve grown, the people you’ve met, the weird things that happened that turned out completely different than you expected.

It’s easy to look back and think ‘Wow.  Life was good then and I was really happy.’  What if we changed where we got our happiness from?  What if we didn’t let our current situations and circumstances control whether or not we have joy? 

The Bible calls us to taste and see that the Lord is good.  Psalm 34 is layered with ways that the Lord gives us joy and brings us happiness and peace.  I want to hi-light a couple of verses from that chapter.

• Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

The Lord is with you.  If you’re feeling down in the dumps, not believing in yourself, or completely feel like your life is caving in, nothing is going right, and nothing is worth it any more, God is near you.  He wants to save you who are crushed in spirit.

• Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

If nothing else is good, if nothing else is right, if everything in life is falling apart, take refuge in Him!  Sometimes, our only safe place is with God.  This world is messed up!  Why on earth would we choose anything (or anyone) other than our Lord to take refuge in?

Alcohol, drugs, social media, porn, sports, tobacco, family, friends, work … whatever it is you turn to when life gets rough, that is what you are “taking refuge” in.  Sure, about half of those things are not bad things to be involved in!  BUT, are we turning to God first when life gets tough?  Social media can be great, but if it is something that just numbs the pain, are you really blessed by it?

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

I wanna be blessed.  I want an unexplainable joy in the midst of my chaos.  I want a transformed outlook on life.  I want a bottomless supply of joy that never runs out, even in my darkest of days.  I wanna be blessed.

In Christ, we have that.  We don’t have to go looking for something to take the pain away.

I strongly encourage you to go read Psalm 34 in its entirety.  Pray about it.  Read it again.  Pray again.  Read it verse by verse, really focusing to digest the content.  Whatever it takes to really understand this concept.  Over and over again.  You may wind up receiving a little bit of that unexplainable joy.