The topic for Advent at church yesterday was Joy. Nehemiah 8:10 "...the JOY of the Lord is your strength." I was thinking about joy vs happiness. Happiness is something we all want, even the world. The mass markets try to reproduce happiness through the things they sell. I don't have to give you examples, it's less than a week before Christmas and you've seen what's out there.
Happiness defined is: a state of well-being and contentment. A pleasurable or satisfying experience. Synonyms being gladness,bliss,blessedness. Antonyms: misery, sadness, and unhappiness.
Joy defined is: the emotion evoked by well-being,success,or good fortune. The expression of such emotion:Gaiety. Synonyms are gladness,happiness,blessedness. Antonyms:misery,sadness,and calamity.
The dictionary defines these terms as almost the same thing. But I say they are very different. We talked in our small group after the sermon about this a little bit. I personally have come to this conclusion...
Happiness is feeling good. Whatever form this takes. Usually it is dependant upon something, be it a person, an object, a desire, etc. Joy is something that is a gift from God. I am thinking that if you do not have Jesus living in your heart, you have never experienced this gift. You may have been happy but you do not have Joy. Joy equals Jesus. Joy is leaps and bounds above happiness. It is elation to the point that it is not of "this world." You can choose Joy no matter what your circumstances. You can have Joy in knowing who you are in Christ, where you are going when you die, what you have been saved from, and the list can go on. If you want to continue on from my last post that talked about the fruits of the spirit, the order they are listed are: love first (God is Love) and then Joy. Leading me to believe that you need to possess true love inside you (God) to then experience the next thing which is Joy.
I am thankful for the Joy of the Lord! I have been so overcome with Joy lately that I am humbled with thankfulness. We are so blessed as a family and I really am sensitive to it during this time of year. There are so many in need all around us.
I will leave you with something to ponder. In our small group (these are believers so they have Joy in their hearts and have experienced it) we talked about characteristics of a Joyful person. Do you have true Joy or happiness? Here is what we came up with, feel free to tell me about any more we might have not included. A Joyful person is or does the following: smiling a lot, full of light or radiance, positive no matter their circumstances, leave you feeling better than when you first encountered them, magnetic- people are drawn to them, contagious, infectious (you want to catch what they have), memorable.
"Joy is the flag that flies over the castle of our hearts letting everyone know that you have the KING (Jesus) ruling there!" (quote pastor Dean used).
http://www.vbgrace.com/media.php?pageID=48 (week #4 is from yesterday)
To experience this Joy go here:
http://www.joycemeyer.org/OurMinistries/EverydayAnswers/How+to+Become+a+Christian/becomeachristian.htm
I, too have many thoughts on this subject. Too many to write in your comment section! ha I agree with you their is a huge difference between joy and happiness.
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