Devotional Reading Plan

Day 1: Will The Real Happy Please Stand Up?

What comes to mind when you think of the word happy?

A toddler in overalls splashing through puddles while gleefully chasing a frog? A couple of kindergarteners sitting elbow to elbow at a picnic table both wearing gap-toothed grins and holding slices of watermelon bigger than their heads? Or a bright-eyed cheerleader who’s catapulted high in the air with her arms over her head in victory when the home team scores the winning touchdown?

Happy. It sounds like fireworks, smells like roasted marshmallows, and feels like canon-balling into a cold pool on a hot day, right?

What it does not seem to be, to some of us, is allowable for Christians. Surely happy is too based on our circumstances, too emotive, too . . . well, too unspiritual to be an appropriate and consistent state for Christ-followers, right?

Wrong.

Wildly, sadly, distorted-by-religious-Pharisees-for-far-too-long WRONG.

There are actually thirty-seven references to “happy” in the Old Testament and forty-eight in the New Testament. Did you know that there are over 2,700 passages where terms related to happy–gladness, merriment, pleasure, celebration, cheer, laughter, delight, jubilation and feasting–are used? In fact, the Psalms–the book smack dab in the middle of the Bible and comprised of 150 Old Testament songs–literally begins with the word happy!

Let’s talk about how Jesus himself used the concept of “happy.” We don’t have to look any further than the Beatitudes—arguably Jesus’ most beloved message—which could accurately be titled “How to Be Happy” since the whole thing technically begins with the word happy as well. Once again, theological experts who’ve immersed themselves in the Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic of biblical lexicon assert that “happy” (which in Scriptural context is about the consistent joy that comes with trusting in God’s faithfulness as opposed to the momentary enjoyment of present circumstances) is a perfectly sound substitutional term for “blessed” or “fortunate” here.

That means happy is a wonderfully legitimate outward sign of Christians who are walking with God and enjoying all the inward graces He gives us. In other words, happiness is the joyful fruit of someone who is deeply rooted in their relationship with God…it’s the outer disposition of a God-lover’s inward reality… a covenant “state of being” for His people.

God has taught me so much in every moment of life – from the lowest valley to the highest pinnacle. And at this middle-aged point, when I look back and realize that I’ve lived more life than I have life left to enjoy, I can promise you that I’ve never experienced God’s absence. Not once. Whether I was laughing so hard there were tears running down my face or grieving so deeply that I ran out of tears, I can trace His sovereign, steadfast compassion through every single season. I firmly believe you’ll find our Creator-Redeemer to be perfectly faithful and compassionate in the highs and lows of your life, too.

So let’s dive into this devotion and run hard toward Jesus together, knowing we’ll inevitably share some pratfalls and belly laughs along the way!

➤Have you ever thought about happiness as being a sacred thing, in both the hard and the good times? Why or why not?