Happy Happy Happy

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands!  How many times have you sung that song?  Clapped your hands, stomped your feet and that was enough to know you were happy. How about this one?  I’ve got that joy joy joy joy down in my heart-WHERE? Down in my heart! Where?  Down in my heart!  Once again; we sing it, the Bible says it so it must be so!

Psalm 32:1-2 (NLV)

Joy of Being Forgiven

32 How happy he is whose wrong-doing is forgiven, and whose sin is covered! ² How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false.

What is happiness?  What do you consider “Happy”?  Is it a good job with enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills with a little left over?  Is it having your family all together?  Maybe happiness to you is your grandchildren?  To some it may be “stuff”.  And that’s OK!  To those who think “stuff” will make them happy, you will figure it out eventually.  But in order to figure it out, you will probably have to go through something.  Something that will devastate you and you will try to cling to that stuff…that’s when you will figure it out.  Happiness…I am having a hard time with that one.  No matter how hard I clap my hands and stomp my feet…I am not happy.  I am trying to find someone to blame…can’t find that either.  I miss my husband and friend.  I can’t blame him, I have tried.  So how do we become happy?  What’s the recipe?  Because I really need it.  Sadness I think comes from the devil.  I am sure of it, but how do I overcome it.  Depression is not of God, I don’t know how to overcome that either!

Philippians 2:15 (KJV)

¹⁵ That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

I feel like my light has burnt out.  I feel like I don’t know how to shine any more, not that I was very shiny anyway, but my sadness is beginning to creep into my everyday life.  I pray…boy have I prayed.  I pray for solutions, I pray for the darkness that has invaded my soul to leave just as the clouds roll in the sky.  That’s how it feels.  I feel like one day I was happy and a dark cloud rolled over and it started to rain on my life.  The rain and dark cloud won’t leave me.  So here I sit.  But I have noticed as I sit under my rainy dark cloud, I am not alone.  I am alone under my own cloud, but there are others out there sitting under their own cloud.

Proverbs 27:17 (KJV)

¹⁷ Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

If we are all sitting under our own cloud, we aren’t getting very sharp now are we?!  The trouble with being sad is no one wants it.  They avoid it like the common cold.  And if they ask how you are, as soon as you start to tell them, they avoid it or leave as quick as they can.  So it’s easier for all concerned just to keep it all locked up and out of the way.  That works for a while.  Until it starts eating at you and then you get to where you can’t hide it and there ya are!

Luke 10:27 (KJV)

²⁷ And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

I think if we do this, there won’t be room for sadness, no room for depression, anxiety…no room for anything but Jesus!  Is this easy?  NO!  I haven’t been able to do it.  I am trying but I need that help that comes from above.

The Great Commission.  He gave us a mission with clear marching orders.  Go make disciples…go help others…If we get it figured out enough to pass on to others then that’s our mission.

Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV)

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

As I walked Sunday I tried to figure out my life. Why things happen the way they do.   I wondered why I was depressed.  Are Christians supposed to be depressed?  It isn’t from God.  Well I am here to tell you I am depressed and Jesus lives right there in my heart.  But that old devil tries to squeeze in there every chance he gets.  And it’s very often with me!  I have so many faults the devil just takes one look at me and says “happy, happy, happy!”

Lifes struggles and trials aren’t meant for us alone.  If we are doing our part in the grand scheme of things we are looking out for others.  God will send us someone with an encouraging word to lighten our load.  Sometimes He offers guidance, sometimes just a message to hang in there!  That was my case.  I got that word I needed from a friend.  So Monday as I worked I tried to not focus on my problems, not focus on ME!  My day was so much better.  I found myself reciting bible verses that I had learned years before.  Ones I thought I had forgot but they were still there.

Philippians 2:16a (NLT)

¹⁶ Hold firmly to the word of life;

On a normal day I leave work at 6:15p but today we were finished.  No patients so I left at 6pm.  I got a phone call from a friend I haven’t talked to in almost a year.  She was having problems with…guess what?  Depression!  We talked and prayed.  I know God has a reason for us to go through the things we do.  In all my instances I have encountered someone going through the same things I have went through.  And in each of those encounters I have been able to tell them how God saw me through.  Each and every time.  He stood beside me, wrapped me up and sometimes He even said hold on tight cause it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!  But He has never let me fall to the point I couldn’t get up! 

Psalm 119:16 (GW)

¹⁶ Your laws make me happy.
I never forget your word

 

Today is Wednesday.  It has taken me a few days to figure things out and I am still trying to figure things out.  But just like that song says, if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, it isn’t always that easy.  We know we have much to be happy about but some days it’s just hard to be happy!  So instead of happiness I am working on the JOY JOY JOY JOY down in my heart!  Because if I have that joy, the happiness will come!  The joy will see me through my sad days.  It will see me through the days when I have nothing but tears.  Joy will be there when I don’t have words to pray.  That joy is Jesus.  That’s where my happiness will come from.

As I finished praying with my friend and we were ready to end our conversation she said these words, “Keep shining your light Trish, keep shining your light!”  I didn’t tell her how I felt about my own light being dim!  But those are the exact words I needed to hear!  God knew that!  He sent my friend at exactly that moment to encourage me.  To tell me to hang in there!

Psalm 119:35 (NLT)

³⁵ Make me walk along the path of your commands,
for that is where my happiness is found.