Finding Better HappinessSample

God Wants You to Experience Something Better Than Happiness 

When someone reads the scriptures, they can quickly tell that God cares about His people’s wellbeing. Over and over again, His Word tells us about how Christ loves us and provides for us in many ways. Naturally, this would include emotional provision. 

God wants you to be happy, but it may not look like you think it does. 

See, we often think about happiness in a specific way. It’s just a temporary feeling that we want to experience in all parts of life. It’s that special sensation that we feel when something extraordinary happens, and we want to feel that way all the time. 

While those feelings are definitely nice, God has something bigger in mind for His people: an everlasting happiness called joy.

Joy is not circumstantial. It is not a temporary feeling that leaves once the emotional high is gone. According to God’s Word, joy lasts. From Genesis to Revelation, we see story after story of how God’s people experience joy even in the most trying circumstances. Even when everything around them seems like it’s crumbling, they experience the Joy found in the Lord. 

As people in a broken world, we think too small. We think that happiness, an emotional reaction to a temporary circumstance, is what we need, but by offering joy, God gives us a way of living within all circumstances, good or bad.

The scriptures today show us a few stories of people in tough places who still find joy. Paul, the writer of Philippians, sits in a jail cell possibly waiting execution when he tells his reader that he is content. David reflects on all sorts of struggles throughout his life in Psalm 19, and he reminds himself and his readers that God made a way for him. Wherever you are today, rest in the joy the Lord has given you. Pray that he will help you embrace it and live within it.