What is standing between you and happiness?
Is it a health issue, a problem relationship, stress on the job or no job at all? Is it financial woes, your spouse or not having a spouse? Most of us make the mistake of waiting until we hear the good report from the doctor or pay all of our debts off, buy that dream home or find the "right" person, to allow ourselves the luxury of a peaceful mind and a happy heart.
We are missing the chance of experiencing many peaceful, happy days in between.
Meanwhile, we feel we don't have any choice but to be wrought up, anxious, stressed, and irritable -- less than happy -- while circumstances are not the way we want them. After all, that's what any good, self-respecting person with any common sense would do, even though our worry and fretting don't do anything to change our circumstances for the better.
It is God's strong desire for us to be at peace and rest, to be content and happy, every day of our lives regardless of our circumstances. He doesn't enjoy seeing us upset, worrying, wringing our hands and in despair. We are His children.
It is possible to live every day of our lives peaceful and happy because of a gift God gives us called faith. Faith doesn't keep negative circumstances from coming into our lives. Faith in God and in His promises means that we can know God is on our side and working out everything for our good (Romans 8:28).
God has also given us a special gift unique to man to implement with our faith -- imagination. With it, we can see ourselves with a better future than what we are now experiencing. The world tells us to be sure to live in reality and only consider what you can now see, but God tells us to live by faith and not by sight -- NOT by what we can now see.
We can use our imagination to see our lives the way we want them to be, put our requests before God according to His promises, and then use our faith to believe that such a wonderful future will be ours. This isn't pie-in-the-sky. God wants to meet our desires and wants us to rest in His goodness, and His plan is far greater and more glorious than even we can imagine. This is how we can obey the Bible to rejoice in the Lord always.
Let's work with the Holy Spirit to paint a better future in our imagination, trust in God's goodness to bring it to pass and be happy every day of our lives!
