We all want to be happy, but few of us live in the reality that happiness or unhappiness is a byproduct of our heart's condition. As we live obedient to God's requirements, we know joy; then, as Charles Finney says, we stumble on happiness regularly in our path. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians paints a highway you and I must travel if our desire is to know joy that will be the envy of our friends. In 2 Cor. 2:3b he says, Surely you all know that my joy comes from your being joyful (NLT). God designed us to live on His high octane fuel, joy. As we're filled up daily with His fuel, we know no knock (the problem new engines experience when they run on lower octane fuels). So how do we fill up on joy? The passage is clear, we must live for the joy of others. We understand this well from our feelings at Christmas time. Contrary to what we thought, the greatest Christmases we experienced were the ones we spent giving selflessly to others. There's a exclusive joy and happiness which is caught only by a giver. We were made to give not get; getting provides temporal gratification; but giving measureless joy. God help us fulfill our born design, to live like His Son, who lived to give, knowing the joy that would follow His giving, your salvation and mine (Hebrews 12:1).
No comments:
Post a Comment