happiness

I am understanding something about life. Our happiness is usually tied to our expectations, and whether they are met or not. Happiness is the goal of most humans. We usually here people make statements like "well, as long as they are happy". But as followers of Christ, we are invited into so much more. I am reminded of what Jesus said about joy. In John 15, Jesus said

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete

There is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is circumstantial and joy is rooted in truth. Simply put, Jesus cares about our joy, not our happiness. I find it amazing that no where in scripture does God explicitly display a concern for the temporal happiness of mankind. In this verse, Jesus shows how eternal joy is directly connected to obeying His commandments. If we obey, we will have joy. And joy does not depend on our emotions or circumstances.

Recently in my life, I have seen how circumstances either bring me up on down emotionally. I think if I am more concerned about my obedience to Christ rather than the outcome of circumstances, I would boy more joyful and as a result, probably be happier. So the formula for joy I see in scripture is

fall in love with Jesus + obey his commandments = have complete joy (and probably some happiness thrown in there)

pretty simple stuff.


JN