Get Happy with the Joyful Jesus

I have a picture of Jesus with a big grin, clutching a fishing net with a sailboat in the background.  (It’s called “Risen Christ by the Sea” by artist Jack Jewell.  You can get one from http://www.joyfulnoiseletter.com/risen_Christ.asp.)  This grinning Jesus is full of Easter joy and healing love, and represents “The Easter Laugh” – God’s last laugh on the devil when He raised Jesus from the dead.  Jesus was fun to hang out with.

True happiness comes from God.  When we trust the Savior and let the Holy Spirit manage our lives, JOY is one fruit of the Spirit.  That’s been a tough one for me, after growing up in a home where work always came before fun, and some days, we never got to the fun part.  That old saying about All work and no play was never said in our family, but we experienced it firsthand.  

However, my adult experiences have shown me that REAL HAPPINESS COMES FROM KNOWING JESUS.   Psalm 2:4 says, The One enthroned in heaven laughs.  Jesus promised in Luke 6:21, Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.  (So there’s hope for folks like me.)  The Joyful One also said, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11)   In John 16:33, He says, be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.   

From my experiences with people, we all want to find real happiness.  We do many things and spend much to find happiness, some positive and somethings simply to escape this hard life, but the only way to find true, lasting happiness, is THROUGH THE JOYFUL JESUS.  Without Jesus’ presence in our lives, we just exist, often without purpose or meaning.  Go to the joyful Jesus through prayer and Scripture, and when you let His Spirit guide your life, JOY will come, and probably when you least expect it.