Where can I find happiness?

I spent part of the beginning of this year being very unhappy.  I was unhappy at work, I was unhappy at home, I was unhappy in general with just about everything.


I started wondering why this was.  I wanted to change how I was feeling, but didn't know what to do.


So, I went and asked Uncle Google (google search).  He had a lot of interesting things to say and questions to ask myself.  Hard questions and easy questions.  Questions to make me think and give me a direction.


So I began asking myself what makes me happy?  As I thought about it, the more I thought, the more I realized that my answers would only reflect TODAY, and not what would make me happy in the FUTURE.  What is the point of that?  I wanted to go in a direction that would make me happy TODAY and TOMORROW.


In the days and weeks that followed, I posted the questions on my fridge, but did not have any answer.


Then one day, a light came on!  In the Bible, the passages that say "Blessed are" are often translated or paraphrased "Happy is" or "Happy are."  So, I started looking at the passages with that phrase.


First let me state that I skipped the obvious, the Sermon on the Mount passages in Matthew 5.  I skipped them because I had heard them so many times, they were like words that go in one ear and fall out the other side on the ground.  They were like a song that has been overplayed to the point where the words were meaningless.


So, I started in Psalm 1 where it says:  Blessed (HAPPY) is the one who does walk in the step with with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord.


First clue:  happiness comes from the Word of the Lord - the Bible and from revelation that He gives through reading his word. (See also Psalm 119:1,2)


Psalm 2:12 - Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.  (see also Psalm 34:8)  


Taking refuge in Jesus - realizing that He is all I ever need does bring me great happiness.


Psalm 65:4 - Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts.  We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.


Being in the presence of the Lord, with his people (the local expression of His body, aka The Church) brings happiness.  (See also Psalm 84:4)


The Bible does have a lot to say about happiness, and it's interesting to note that none of it dependent on your job, your surroundings, your financial status, your clothes, the car you drive, the number of your friends, or where you live, etc.  It seems to me that true happiness is derived from reading and believing 100% what the Bible says about me, to me and for me.


Happy are you!  Who is like you, saved by the Lord!  He is my shield and my Sword.  (Deut. 33:29)  

I am saved by the Lord, and He provides everything I need, including happiness.  The world can never provide true lasting happiness, and that's the truth. 

Eph 2 - part 1

Ephesians 2 explorations

I was that dead woman walking

Dragged along by sins

offenses

perverse cravings

doing my thing

Surrounded by contamination

Polluted to my very core

Polluted by this pollution and polluting

everywhere I go

it's in the air

but now...

Life runs out all around me

Pure vibrancy

Radiating glorious light

Shining out from my very core

Lifted out and above

Unpolluted

Pure

Holy

Purified by this Purity and purifying

everywhere I go

Atmosphere changer

Air Exchanger

Not dragged along by the world

But walking in life, in purpose, on purpose

Faith

Faith and fear cannot coexist.  It is impossible.  If you have fear, you cannot have faith.  If you have faith, you cannot have fear.

Faith is the assurance, even the evidence of things unseen.  


I've been rolling that around in my mind this week.  Isn't it true that if you have faith for something, that that "something" has to be something... having faith for someone's healing, having faith for a job, having faith for a good outcome to an impossible situation.


I've thought about this in the context of situations and events.  There have been times in my life when my faith has felt like a force welling up inside of me.  I wouldn't call it a feeling, but more like an energy I feel deep inside of me.


When those situations have come, the faith I have, evidenced by energy in me, has resulted in answers to prayer and healing.  


So, when I have faith for something that I am believing in, believing for I can be assured by the faith I experience that I will have it.  

Renewing Your Mind

Renewing my mind is my responsibility.

Period... don't expect some preacher to do it for you. Don't expect that just going to church on Sunday to renew your mind. This is a daily, hourly, minute by minute exercise.

Experience It

I realize that it is sometimes difficult to move from words and concepts into experience. Our way of learning in North American schools and churches and even businesses, has been one of a talking head dispensing information and the audience just receiving that information without much interaction.

But the Gospel is not a concept, it's not words. It's a powerful force that causes life transformation. I do not know how to explain it, nor do I know if I could. How can you explain dramatic, inside-out changes in people who are Christians - whether their experience is brand new or years old?

How can I explain to you how I have been set free, no longer stuck in the same routine I was stuck in before? How can I tell what happened to me to change me from someone who was afraid to interact with anyone (unless someone worked at drawing me out), to someone who is no longer afraid and can go out meet people and interact with others more easily?

How can I explain to you that my past no longer influences my today or my tomorrow?

How can I explain to you that I do not live in fear?

There are so many areas where I have experienced a change that is not from within me. This change has not come about because I have worked it up or willed myself to do something different than I have before.

The change is coming from a deep place within. The change is coming because Jesus is IN me, living and residing in me, changing me at a deep, core level - from glory to glory.

This is the power of the Gospel at work in me.

Don't Copy

Don't copy!

We all used to hear that in school - don't copy. Copying is cheating. It's especially cheating and very bad if you do it during a test.

If I don't copy, and I don't know what to do, then what I am supposed to do?

I've been in a particularly difficult situation lately. Personalities and routine ways of behaving and reacting are dragging everyone in this situation into a particular downward spiral of actions and reactions. It's been very predictable and not at all positive or productive.

And I, of all people, got sucked into it!!! Do you know how hard it is to pull yourself from this copying behavior of others. It's like going around a whirlpool, and I can see the center of the spiral and I can't do a thing to get out. I'm getting sucked closer and closer with every action and reaction.

Someone help me. I do those things I do not want to do! I say things, and instantly regret them as I see them fueling the vortex and the actions and reactions of others.

How can I stop contributing to this behavior? I have been in a state of anxiety before every situation, knowing that I was powerless to do anything. Even the most innocent statement could and probably would set off the others to act and react and start the swirling, whirling descent.

I was re-reading Romans 12:2 in the New Living Translation where it says: Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world (I really want to stop doing this but how??!!), but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Aha! I don't have to do anything! I can enter these situations, and simply by yielding to God, and recognizing Him in this situation (what He thinks, what He wants, what He sees) and reacting to Him instead of to them, I can be changed, and my behavior can change as well.

It's an exercise - a spiritual exercise that reaps benefits. As we exercise ourselves to mind these things, eventually our whole being will be according to the Spirit (see blog post of Aug. 29).

So, here I am exercising my spiritual muscles in order that I might be habitually dominated by the Spirit and not by my flesh.