Do you ever feel like you have to keep up with people?
With every refreshing of your feed, you are constantly being bombarded by everyone’s latest accolade. It’s hard to feel like you are doing anything worthwhile with your life.
That’s kind of what happens when social media turns into a pile of fake interactions, fake smiles, and fake products.
Why are we so obsessed with perfection?
I believe perfection is something we all long to attain because we are made in the image of God (Gen 1:27).
He is perfect, and our spirits long to know him and be with him. To be made righteous and whole.
When that need is not being met, we can easily try to satisfy this longing with a temporal fix. We think if we just had a better job, a better body, or more friends we would measure up. We would be happy.
I’ve noticed happiness is our generations Holy Grail.
I’ve heard some of the most influential life coaches, speakers, and public figures say things like:
“The purpose of life is to be happy.”
“All I want out of life is happiness.”
Desiring to be happy is definitely normal. But what we must understand, is that happiness is solely dependent on circumstances. It is fleeting.
‘happen’ and ‘happiness’ derive from the same root word: Hap—having chance or fortune.
If your goal in life is to be happy, you’re chasing a temporal rush of chemicals, a feeling, and emotion that is completely influenced by external factors such as people or situations. A game of chance.
In scripture alone, I found about 25 places where happiness is mentioned. A majority of these verses describe celebrations, feasts, and nice events that took place in people’s lives.
I looked up ‘joy’ and found 333 results.
- Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22)
- Joy is found in His presence (Psalm 16:11)
- His joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10)
- He is the source of joy (psalm 43:4)
- Those who fear the lord are joyful (Ps 112:1)
Joy is unshakable. It cannot be manufactured. It is not contingent on any person or happenstance.
Joy is the product of spending time with The Lord, not a reward for being a good Christian. It doesn’t disappear when things get hard, it actually thrives, demonstrating its power and how deep it runs in your spirit. Let me elaborate:
Acts 16 tells of how Paul and Silas got thrown into prison for doing God’s will. They ministered and cast demons out of a woman who had been tormented by spirits her whole life! Yet they were thrown into jail.
What’s remarkable, is that Paul and Silas did not cry out to God and ask him why he would allow this cruelty to happen to them while they were doing his work. Instead, they prayed, sang worship songs, and praised God! The bible goes on to tell of a great earthquake that immediately followed—the prison doors flew open, and the chains fell off all the prisoners!
Praising in your prison causes earthquakes. It causes strongholds and things that kept you bound to crumble and fall to pieces. Worship causes chains to loosen, break, and fall off. And joy is found at the center of it all, because that is where Christ is.
What if instead of analyzing, complaining, or crying out about the circumstances you feel are robbing you of happiness, you laid them all at the feet of Jesus and praised him?
When we praise through our pain, joy begins to bubble in our spirit like a river. Your prayer becomes one of gratitude because your spirit suddenly understands that God is using this circumstance to show you the areas He is strengthening you in. Your eyes open, and you can see all the ways your father has been carefully planning and placing each piece of your life together for good.
We should seek Christ over happiness, always. The result? A life blooming and abundant in fullness of joy that even the harshest winter cannot destroy.