Holy Happiness

Holy Happiness

Holy HappinessWhat’s your take on happiness? Is it overrated or is it something you expect to be? Sometimes Christians think it’s not something we should be. But how could we not if we’ve been right with God? What if happiness is holy?

But may the righteous be glad
    and rejoice before God;
    may they be happy and joyful.
(Psalm 68:3, NIV,*)

Happiness is an outward expression of an inner joy. Nothing but Jesus can make us truly joy-filled. Nothing but Jesus can make us truly happy. It is more than ok to be happy, to enjoy life and the Giver of Life. Holiness is not cheerlessness. Holiness is joyfulness.

So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. (Ecclesiastes 3:12, NLT,*)

If you have trouble of finding happiness, start counting blessings. Soon you realise you’re blessed indeed. Especially in summer it’s easy to find blessings: strawberries, ice cream, swimming, sunshine, barbecue, birds, laughter, light… But we don’t even need to be outwardly blessed to be joy-filled and happy. Just check out the lyrics of the Happy Song by Matt Redman:

I could sing unending songs of how you saved my soul
I could dance a thousand miles because of your
Great love
My heart is bursting Lord
To tell of all you’ve done
Of how you changed my life and wiped away my past
I want to shout it out
From every rooftop sing

For now I know that God is for me not against me
Everybody’s singing now, cause we’re so happy
Everybody’s dancing now, cause we’re so happy
If only I could see your face
See you smiling over us
And unseen angels celebrate
The joy is in this place

The secret of happiness is Jesus. God is for us and not against us. God wants us to be happy. And the ultimate happiness is found in him. Talk about holy happiness.

 

Gracious God,

Thank you for wanting only good things for us.
Thank you for wanting us to be happy.
Thank you for loving us so deeply and
saving us from ourselves.
Help us to embrace you so fully
that happiness would always be the mode of operation.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What if happiness is holy?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you embrace happiness and all the good things God is giving you.

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.].

Image courtesy of Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Dance with Jesus, Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday.

8 thoughts on “Holy Happiness

  1. “So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.” This is my favorite line! This life is created for us to be happy and it is up to us to find what we are thankful and happy for each and every day. Wonderful reminder…your FMF neighbor #23

  2. Thank you for this blending of happiness and holiness. I just finished Larry Crabb’s new book on Happiness and also Jennifer Dukes Lee’s, so the thoughts are all running around in my head. It’s great to get this high impact call to live before our happy and holy God.

  3. Thanks for the reminder! True happiness can only be found in Jesus!
    Stopping by from #dancewithJesus,
    Julie

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RSS
Follow by Email