True Happiness

I've discovered something recently. It's going to sound like a truth that you already know and have heard a dozen times over. I had anyway. But it's starting to ring true in my life, I'm properly experiencing it and realising its proper value: Happiness. Contentment. Joy. They're things that can only be found in Jesus Christ. But it's not a mental state, you can't just think: 'Yes, Jesus died for me.' and expect to be content, you have to feel it and be moved by it. It has to be a state of the heart, otherwise you will never be able to pin down the amazing peace and contentment that God promises and that Paul experiences:

 

'...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.' (Philippians 4 v 11 - 13)

 

That's because true happiness isn't earthly things. It's not wealth and health. I know plenty of Christians who have suffered and suffer physically from all sorts of physical afflictions: tragedy, illness...and if God promises to give us happiness and joy then it can't be that sort of happiness. It can't be earthly, it has to be spiritually. When Paul wrote that, he was experiencing horrible physical affliction - he was in prison. And yet he was still able to experience the true joy and contentment of Christ.

 

That is why being a Christian cannot be a purely mental thing. It can't be a state of the mind. If it's purely mental - you think, okay I believe in Jesus, I am a christian (as I've done and probably will do again) then it's so easy to slip into your stereotype and live out a life in that box, doing all the right things - reading your bible, going to church, being nice...and it's so easy to fool people and yourselves that you're a follower of Christ. And you are, mentally. But I believe that to recieve abundant life it's something you have to believe in your heart. The truth about Jesus, the good news, the news that saves our lives and sets us free, is something that transcends the mind and even transcends emotion (as emotions aren't always 100% reliable), it's something that's so mindboggling that it should shape our personality and life.

 

True contentment is believing in your soul that Jesus Christ died for you, knowing it, and letting the truth run through your blood and set your bones on fire! Understanding his sacrafice and love should completely envelop your mind and give you a heavenly perspective, so that earthly things no longer matter...happiness no longer hinges on earthly things like money, a job, friends, relationships.

 

But in the passage above Paul doesn't just talk about being content in suffering, he talks about being content in plenty as well. This is a little harder. When you're surrounded by earthly riches and wealth it can be equally as hard to rely soley on God, and to find your contentment only in Him. In truth, I find this a little scarier. It makes it so much easier to slip onto the wrong path, nothing is continually pulling you up short and making you rely on God. And slowly you will make yourself content with small earthly pleasures, living in the moment, and not find and live off the true happiness that feeds the soul: the belief that Jesus Christ has died for you and forgiven you even though we hated him.

 

The hardships of my gap year have slowly started to make me realise this. I don't need to find happiness in the right job, the right gap year, friends...because if I did, I would be forever waiting to be happy. I'd be living in that horrible state of yearning and never being satisfied. Gods probably laughing at me right now, at the fact that I've only just started to realise what's been blindingly obvious. And now I'm wondering if all this was a part of His plan to set my priorities straight. In fact, I know it was.

 

So this was a lot longer than I intended it to be, and it was a sort of stream of consciousness. I will be very impressed if you stuck with it to the end. Do tell me if you did!