Joy and happiness is something which everyone wants to have, yet it is not something which every body has. Why is the pursuit of joy and happiness so elusive for many? Why can’t people be happy with their lives? There is in everyone an internal picture of what they must have, where they will be or what they will be doing in order to be happy and joyful. And when things do not line up to this picture or when the direction they are moving forwards is not towards this internal picture,there is a major disruption to the joy and peace that they could have had experience. This internal picture of what constitutes joy and happiness is ever changing as a person grows up into adulthood and even when reaching adulthood, it keeps changing as one’s desire and aspirations of what is possible increases to higher heights.\
Who made this internal picture? And why does there need to even be an internal picture of what would make one happy and joyful? Unfortunately, this internal picture can be produced by outward circumstances: the inspirations of unrealized parental dreams, the jealousy of what others have which is absent from one’s own life, the unfulfilled desires and dreams of one’s imagination fired by readings, knowledge or dreams from historical indulgences or futuristic hopes. Everyone has an internal picture of what would make one happy and joyful. It is time to examine this picture. Is this internal picture produced by all our hopes and dreams and aspiration from God or from the enemy or from environment around us? The distractions of the seed that is sown among thorns are hopes, pleasures and desire for the things of this life that can rob one of joy and happiness; and worse, even one’s destiny in God. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things choke the word of God and the word of life from us (Mark 4:18). We are warned not to be tempted by the desires for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-17). Our Lord Jesus Himself was tempted by the devil with all the kingdoms of the world and their glory (Matthew 4:8, 9). Abraham was tempted by the king of Sodom but refused even a shoe lace or a thread, lest the enemy boasts that they had made Abraham rich (Genesis 14:23). James told the rich not to focus on their gold and silver which corrodes but to live their lives righteous before God (James 5:1-5). Our Lord Jesus told us not to lay up treasures on earth but to lay up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). The apostle Paul exhorts us not to be conformed to the world but to be renewed by the renewal of our mind (Romans 12:2). The first and simple key to joy and happiness is to be freed from the desires for all the things of this world and this life. Anyone still relying on anything on earth or anything in this life for their joy and happiness will constantly be faced with all the cares of life and things which accompany worldly possessions. Any happiness obtained by the acquirement of world goods or worldly positions or pleasures, will be temporal and never truly satisfying. There is nothing wrong to have appropriate goals and accountability to live on this earth with all of God’s blessings. Just never ever have your joy and happiness dependent on anything that is visible. Let it be always and directly from the invisible realm, from the heavens above, from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many will struggle to let go of everything in this life, just like the rich young man struggled to leave everything behind to became a disciple of our Lord Jesus. In the end, he had too much investment in this physical world to let it go, and went sadly away (Mark 10:22). He lived on for earthly years but must have died a sad, sad man. What a wasted life? What a lost opportunity to exchange all that he had for the greatest pearl of life, our Lord Jesus! Just as we have been crucified with Christ, we must also be crucified to the world. The apostle Paul, brought up with the best education and with the greatest opportunity more than most people to become rich, prosperous and powerful gave everything up to pursue the knowledge of Christ (Philippians 3:7). He counted all that he had as dung compared to the gaining Christ (Philippians 3:8). He also said that as far as he was concern, the world has been crucified to him (Galatians 6:14). Indeed, those in Christ must have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires (Galatians 2:20; 5:24). When we give up something we pursue, we need to replace it with something else. We need to replace our zeal and desire for the things of this life with the zeal and desire for the kingdom of God. In seeking the kingdom of God FIRST, we will gain all things that we every need in this life to live out our destiny (Matthew 6:33). After giving up all of the visible things of this life, we need to replace our internal picture of happiness and joy with a better picture. It is a picture of the glorified Christ in all His splendour and love.
I have found that it is not possible to have this new picture of Christ in our hearts until we are deeply touched by the greatness of Christ’s love for us personally and also by deeply falling in love with Christ. Like the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, or like the woman who poured forth the best perfume on our Lord Jesus, we need to be deeply affected, touched, moved, changed, transformed by the greatness of Christ’s love for us. Our Lord Jesus declared that “she loved much!” (Luke 7:47). And on the perfume, He said that wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what the woman had done
shall be told as a memorial to her (Luke 7:13). Why this memorial? What is the story? It is a story of deep, sacrificial, unrestrained love for our Lord Jesus
demonstrated by these women. Can our Lord Jesus declare of us, His modern disciples, that we “loved much?” So rare are there amongst humans who loved God
that God even prepares something special for those who love Him back (1 Corinthians 2:9). What is the greatest gift that we can give back to our Lord Jesus
and to the Father, who has given us the best of the best? Nothing in heaven or on earth could compare with what God has done for us in His love. The greatest gift
that we can give back to God, freely of our own choice and will, is an undivided passionate, deep, unwavering first love towards our Father God and our Lord Jesus
Christ. In order to love Him so deeply, we need to appreciate how deeply and unconditionally He has loved us; for we love Him because He first loved us (1 John
4:9-11). Read the gospel stories over and over again. Can you see how much He loved us? Can you feel the depths of His love? Are you not touched by His
sufferings for our sin? Are you not moved by His sacrifice on the cross for us? Allow yourself to be touched, moved, affected and finally transformed by the revelation of the greatness and depth of His love. And then you will find that same love to give back to our Creator, our Redeemer, our Saviour. When we are deeply and passionately in love with our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father God, He will be everything that makes us happy and joyful! The second most important key to the fullness of joy and happiness is to be deeply and passionately in love with our Father God and our Lord Jesus Christ. When we are in love with God,
He will be the first thought every morning and our last thought at night. Nothing can touch nor destroy this joy and happiness for it is founded and built upon the invisible and the unmoveable. He will become the centre of the revolution of our life. He will be in our heart, in our emotions, in our thoughts, in our goals in our desire day and night. Oh, to be in such a place, would be the happiest, the most joyful moment of life! Do not let your love for God become cold because of lawlessness which abounds around you (Matthew 24:12). Rather be daily renewed and transformed by the fresh love of God every day. God’s love is new every morning, fresh every day. God’s love and compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is His faithfulness every day (Lamentations 3:22, 23). By making Jesus the centre of our lives, the source of our joy and happiness, our joy and happiness becomes more steadfast and more constant than the sun that rises every morning. For everything around us will be shaken until that which cannot be shaken remains (Hebrews 12:27). The only constant we have in our lives is the love of God for us and our love towards Him. Yes, indeed, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37). And you don’t have to be persuaded by me, rather be persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39). And the side effect of this daily source of joy and happiness is that ALL things will work together for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Let us give God the best gift, the one thing He cannot force upon us, the free will love for God, the first love towards God, the gift of our heartfelt love to God. This love we return towards Him is so precious and pure and holy, that He chooses to bring us into a place of special specials, that which no ear has heard, nor eye seen, nor enter into the heart of man (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The third important key to joy and happiness is to be connected with the real joy and happiness of and from our Lord Jesus Himself. We are not just to have
our own joy and happiness but we are to have the actual ever flowing joy and happiness of the Resurrected Christ, who has finished all His redemption work for
us. It is not just our joy, it is His Joy! Can you feel the heart of our Lord Jesus? Can you feel His emotions of such peace, such joy, such love that no words can expressed, but only to be experienced? Our Lord Jesus said that His Joy will REMAIN IN US and that OUR JOY will be FULL (John 15:10). It is His Joy and not
just our own joy. Many people forget that the expression ‘ the joy of the Lord is our strength’ emphasizes on the JOY OF THE LORD and not our own joy (Nehemiah
8:10). It is not just an exhortation to rejoice but it is an exhortation to HAVE the JOY OF the Lord! And our Lord Jesus also said that NO ONE will take the joy that He gave us (John 16:22). This is indeed and truly the joy and happiness that is permanent and eternal and everlasting. Heaven and earth may change but this joy and happiness will NEVER change for it is HIS JOY in us forever more. Moreover, in the presence of God is FULLNESS OF JOY (Psalm 16:11). This verse
is tied to the path of life which He will show us. The path that God wants His people to walk in, to travel in while sojourning on the earth, is a path filled with His presence, which is His FULLNESS OF JOY. We are to have this joy right here and now for the same presence of God is released in the redemption of Christ now in His kingdom. For the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and JOY (Romans 14:17). And when this life is over and we enter into His throne and into the new heavens and new earth, it will be even more exponential joy for each of us, for He will say to us who are faithful, ENTER INTO THE JOY OF THE LORD (Matthew
25:21, 23). We will be presented faultless, before the presence of His glory with EXCEEDING JOY (Jude 24). Amen.