The pursuit of happiness.....it seems to be what everyone is preaching these days. The enemy wants you to believe more than anything that your happiness is most important....he wants you to believe that your happiness is more important than your marriage, a relationship with your children, a job well done, a healthy body, healthy finances....but what if all that is a lie? The enemy wants you to believe that this moment of happiness is worth far more than anything and it is vital that you have it RIGHT NOW. No waiting. No planning. Nothing but giving in to the immediate pleasure of "now"....
What if our "happiness" is not what actually brings us joy? I know that sounds confusing but let me tell you my friends....I have seen this played out over and over and over and and when people pursue their version of happiness, it only leads to more loneliness, depression, and more searching for more of that elusive "happiness". Our best thought out plans are not even close to those plans that God has for us. They pale in comparison to the adventures the King of kings has thought up for us!
It is when we surrender our dreams, our happiness, our thoughts, "our will" completely over to His...that is when we find our joy. It sounds so crazy to think that surrendering to someone else's plans would fill up that emptiness we are constantly seeking to have filled....but that's how it works. Because it truly isn't a physical thing at all....it is supernatural. We need to understand this. Once we do, we can stop chasing after happiness and start surrendering to holiness.
If we really dig deep, we will find that true joy comes from knowing WHO we are and WHOSE we are and that we have VALUE. This is why so many of us pursue things that give us meaning or identity....but if we surrender to Christ....truly surrender LORDSHIP of our life, we are able to stand firm on our identity as HIS child. And that brings the deepest sense of joy. That gives us everything we are seeking....everything from our desperate need of worth to our trying to control and figure everything out to knowing we belong to a family and can never be separated from that family. He fulfills all of our deepest needs. We seem to forget at times that God wants us to be full of joy! He is not withholding happiness from us in anyway....but our happiness will never go against what God's Word says. So if we are thinking that something will make us happy, and that thing is contrary to God's Word, we can immediately know that is US pursuing OUR plan instead of God's will.
The happiness that we all long for comes from serving Jesus as our Lord. It is really that simple. The more we serve....the more we surrender all the broken pieces to Jesus....our very spirit becomes happier. We begin to find a sense of worth and a peace and it doesn't matter that we may have money problems, or marriage struggles, or family issues....it doesn't matter what we are walking through....we are still happy. Because joy comes from the Holy Spirit...not from us achieving any certain thing. This is why we have people that can walk through the most heartbreaking situations and still radiate a joyful beauty. It isn't that somehow it doesn't hurt them as much....not at all....instead, they just walk in faith...bravely....joyfully....in HIS WILL. We roll up our spiritual sleeves and we fight. We don't give up. We don't settle for the world's version of joy but instead surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit working in us....perfecting us in all the hardest parts of us. We stand firm on what GOD'S WORD says....not what our feelings say. We stand firm on truth. And we live in joy. True joy....the kind that withstands the struggles and broken hearts and hurts and fears of life....and still through it all...have joy. His joy.
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