“The Joy I have in You is independent of my circumstances. I am never separated from You, and in Your Presence there is fullness of Joy!”
– Jesus Listens, October 18th
Happiness is not a permanent emotion, and that’s what bothers us. Take for instance you receive a call from a long-lost friend, and you’re elated. Can that feeling last until the next day? When you win a prize, finish a task, find something you’ve lost, you feel happy. A year later, is the feeling still there? Happiness is a dependent emotion. It depends on something else to be happy.
We mistake the word happiness for contentment and well-being. These are distinctly different because they indicate a state of being, even though they’re also dependent. The words blessed and happy are often used interchangeably, but we don’t say, “God happy you.” Blessing is not something fleeting or temporary.
Exhausting pursuit
We need to trade our exhausting pursuits for happiness and the disappointments that accompany it for a new understanding of happiness as an emotion that comes and goes. It’s not that happiness is fickle; it just needs certain events or things to take place before it can emerge as a happy feeling.
There’s a feeling better than happiness and it’s not temporary. It’s a part of you that you may not have accessed fully yet because perhaps you didn’t know the truth about it. I’m talking about joy. Joy is in you no matter what’s going on in the world or around you. (I don’t mean avoidance or denial behavior.)
If happiness is not permanent, neither is unhappiness. We lose much in a lifetime, including possessions and loved ones, and happiness seems to fly away from us. Grief can move in, outweighing happiness, contentment, and well-being, but all of these are impermanent. It’s possible for something greater to move in to overtake these feelings, and that something is joy.
Joy is action
Think of joy as a verb. Joy is something we do. As a verb, joy is action, and not something that happens to us. Joy depends on nothing outside us. As a child of God, joy lives within you right alongside love and peace. The joy of the Lord is a gift to you from the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
The joy of the Lord within you is calling for activation. It’s what Paul and Silas called on when they’d been badly beaten and imprisoned with their feet bound in shackles. They rejoiced and sang so loud the other prisoners could hear them (Acts 16:16-40). They didn’t beg God to help them. They didn’t ask, “Why us?” They weren’t angry at the injustice of their suffering. No, they rejoiced.
They called on joy so beautiful it inspired God to start an earthquake, loosen the chains, and split apart the jail. It caused the jailkeeper to become a believer in Christ.
Affirmations
Here are three scriptural affirmations to tell yourself when happiness seems to fly away:
- Moments of happiness are great, but the joy of the Lord is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
- I choose to rejoice in the Lord always. I count it all joy and rejoice in the Lord when I meet with trials (James 1:2).
- Jesus has given me His joy. I am abundantly filled with joy (John 15:10-11)
As happiness is a skill you teach yourself, joy is a spiritual gift you call on. Start affirming today the spiritual power and abilities you have within you.
About The Author
Marie Chapian is a New York Times best-selling author of over forty books which have been translated into seventeen languages, her latest being He Calls Me His Child. Her works have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction and the National Book Award. Chapian writes and ministers to people from all walks of life. She continues to touch and empower people around the world. She is an accomplished fine artist whose work is shown in many galleries. Marie can be heard daily on her Christian meditation podcast at QuietPrayer.org.
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