I find myself unhappy alot. Sometimes I feel a little "unblessed". And I think, "God wants me to be happy." And he does, he loves us like a father loves his children and a good father wants to see his children happy. And then I think, "Well, if God wants me happy, and I'm not happy, then God needs to change the circumstances that are making me unhappy." Don't be shocked...if you'd be honest, you like to help God run the show every once in awhile to. I liken our bossiness of the Almighty to a man and wife in the car (probably on the way to church). The man runs up a little close on a stopped car and the wife makes mention in a not so polite way that he needs to keep his eyes on the road. The man turns and snaps at his wife "I don't need a side seat driver." We've all been in that situation, on both sides of the car. Doesn't it make you mad when your husband or wife tells you how to drive? Well, I'm going to say that I think it rather aggravates God as well, except he doesn't handle it like we do.
But, oh yeah, back to happiness. A friend and I were discussing this the other day and we agreed that we have formed in our minds what God's kind of happiness looks like. We can see the perfect home (inside and out), the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect church, the all-important perfect bank account in our minds and we think that that's God's best for us. And if our homes, marriages, churches, kids and financial portfolio don't fit into that mold we've created, then we think we can't possible be happy. That God skipped over us in the blessing department. What we don't realize is that God's idea of happiness is COMPLETELY different from ours. What we think a blessed person looks like isn't at all what God sees a blessed person to be. In fact, happiness (as we tend to see it) is a fleeing emotion that comes and goes. Have you actually ever studied out who God says should be happy? Ever searched the scriptures for the "circumstances" that facilitate true happiness. I'm telling you...by the world's standards they don't make sense. In fact, some of them seem pretty unappealing even to a Christian.
Read the Beautitudes in Jesus Sermon on the Mount sometime, and you'll see what I mean by that.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn,blessed are the peace makers? Read them all and you'll find yourself re-examining your view of blessed-ness and lining it up more with God's.
You know what that one magical ingredient that fosters a Godly "happiness" is? It's God...just God....plain and simple. We have put ourselves into bondage thinking that we "deserve" the things that WE think will make us happy. We don't even know what's going to happen in the next minute of our life...how can we possibly say we know what's best for us? In truth, we don't deserve anything...not even salvation, and certainly not the love that brought it about. In a time where the world in general is self-serving and only out to get what is "rightfully there's", this is a foreign concept. God made the world and he made us, his hand is over and in it all, he doesn't owe us anything...but he gives us every good thing (even if those things don't seem "good" in our eyes).
If it takes a perfect marriage with a perfect husband who cooks breakfast on Sundays AND puts his dirty clothes in the hamper for you to be happy...truth is, you never will be happy. If you can't be happy with anything less than obedient sweet children, an on-fire all the time church, and a healthy checking account...then , you won't ever be happy...never have peace, never have joy. The truth is that our world is imperfect and so are the people in it. Including you and I, by the way.
But God does want us to experience happiness, even in the darkest times...in the times you feel like quitting, when you feel like everyone and everything is fighting against you, when the bill collectors are calling and you recieve the final final notice on a light bill and don't have a clue where the money is going to come from.
And you know, all it takes is a shift in focus? Get your focus back on God...back to Jesus and what he did for you. If in all his pain and suffering he could find peace enough to endure what he did, then how much more can we find peace seeing as how we have him living inside us...with us all the time to help us. He had no help...he had to endure it all alone, so we wouldn't have to go through anything alone.... When circumstances have got you down and you pray and pray and it seems like you can't hear GOd, you don't know what to do, you can't see anyway out except a change in those circumstances , remember that GOd is not a genie in a bottle we can rub anytime we want and get our way. There are times I have asked God for things and found out later I am very thankful he didn't let me have my way.
Am I saying we should just throw up our hands and let our lives run amuck, stop working on our marriages and stop discipling our children and working in our churches and quit paying our bills? No...a little common sense would tell us that's ridiculous. What I'm saying is that if God doesn't see fit to change your circumstances (for whatever reason...He knows best) you can have joy and peace if you focus on the one who never changes and never fails...who CAN'T break a promise.
I'm learning this more and more lately, it seems. So I'll leave you with this song which I absolutely love...Have a blessed day!