I started thinking about the concept of happiness. Happiness is an emotion, and our emotions are so fickle. I wake up and kiss my husband, so I am happy. I get in the car to go to work and hit traffic so I am sad. I get to work and a friend tells me some good news so I am happy. I stay at work longer and get treated unkindly, so I am sad. And the cycle continues. Add in sickness, fatigue, PMS, boredom, frustrations, outside circumstances, and my emotions are swayed even more. How do I not let my fickle emotions rule me?
God does not command us to be happy. He does not say "You should be smiling and thrilled in the circumstance that you feel taken advantage of at work." I doubt when Jesus being nailed to the cross was His mind thinking "I am so happy right now!"
However, God does command us to have two constant states of being: "Be joyful always" (1 Thessalonian 5:16) and "Be content" (1 Timothy 6:8)
What does this mean? How does this apply to me?
I went online today and looked through online Bible glossaries, dictionaries and commentaries. Here is what I came up with:
JOY: Biblical joy, I am gathering, can be defined as delight in God, specifically in God's grace. The Greek word that is most commonly used for joy is CHARA which translates to "joy, gladness, and delight." It is also directly related to the Greek word CHARIS, which means grace (which I have heard defined as 'a gift of something that you don't deserve.') So therefore, God's grace produces our joy.
I am taking this to mean that because we have been given God's grace, therefore we should delight in it. God's grace to us is constant and His gift of His son has already been given; therefore we should ALWAYS find joy in that. Joy does not just mean thinking "yeah this is great...I am ok with this." Joy is taking great pleasure and gladness from something. Thriving on it. Allowing it to fill you. I delight in spending time with my husband. When he and I are together, I am often filled with that warm, fuzzy, life is good feeling. My delight/joy in God should be astronomically huger than that. He has given me SO much more: my life, my salvation, His spirit... I should be thrilled to the brim with joy in that fact.
So even when something sad happens in my life, I should still have joy because of the consistent fact that God has bestowed His favor on me, even though I absolutely do not deserve it.
So joy is the constant state, but how am I to feel about circumstances? I mean let's face it, even though it should be, God's grace is not constantly at the forefront of my mind and probably won't
be the constant this side of glory. Thankfully, God has something to stay about our state of being in regard to our circumstances.
CONTENTMENT: From my research this morning, I would summarize contentment as "a state of mind where one is satisfied with whatever one's circumstances are due to the hope in God's promises and provision." This is what is most difficult to me. Basically, I should be satisfied with whatever I am given because no matter what I face, I have God. I guess it is the mental recognition of "situation x is ok because that's how God has it right now, and He is in control."
God has given me Jesus to save my sins. He has given me His Spirit to live in my heart. He has given me my husband, who is my best friend and partner. He has given me a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear. According to the principle of contentment, that is enough. The rest is extra blessing.
Wow. I fail at contentment every single day. Multiple times. My heart is so sinful. Somehow I have come to think that I deserve more or don't deserve whatever bad thing I am going through. But really, I deserve Hell. Anything better than Hell is God's grace (through which I am given joy; see the connections!)
But how do I daily practice contentment and joy? I am honestly asking because even though I know these things, I am not really joyful or content on a consistent basis. I mean, reading and writing these things has helped to put my life in perspective and restore my joy. And our kind God is so forgiving, and makes my joy new no matter how many times I lose it. But what are some practical ways when circumstances are just plain sad do I bring joy and contentment to the forefront of my mind? I haven't found that answer yet, but the apostle Paul has. I leave you with his God-inspired words. In the meantime, will you pray for me? With me?
Philippians 4
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus....
11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I 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. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
some sites I used in this post:
http://www.biblelearn.com/j_frame.htm
http://www.biblestudytools.net/Dictionaries/BakersEvangelicalDictionary/bed.cgi
http://www.ccel.org/contrib/exec_outlines/fs/fs_10.htm <--really cool article
1 comment:
Oooh, giant issues, and definitely ones I've struggled with!
I think, in the end, the biggest conclusion I've come to is that contentment is an action (or a "choice," except we MUST choose it!) as much as joy is. I think I get caught up in thinking I should feel a happy gushy feeling associated with contentment, but really maybe contentment is more about the things we *don't* feel--despair, anger at God, etc.
For instance, in the garden Christ prayed for God to take away the "cup", but then said "not my will but thine!" I think there's no better summary of contentment! With every emotion He could plead with the Father to change the circumstance, yet then regulate Himself under the Father's will and ultimately wish that the circumstance would unfold according to the Father's will and not His own. So I think that it's entirely valid to wish that things were different, and be deeply distressed over a circumstance... the sin of discontentment is when we fail to subordinate our wishes based on our limited viewpoint to the Lord's will based on His omniscience.
Bible people like Job and Jeremiah (and to an extent, Paul even!) come to mind as people with deep abiding sadness yet also (obviously) contentment and joy. Jeremiah's life always struck me as particularly thankless: spend your whole life trying to bring a nation to repentence and never see it happen.
At any rate, as far as the practical... the BIGGEST thing for me when it comes to people depressing me (like your instance of being treated unkindly at work) is to remember that sin never makes people happy. It really helps to cultivate pity and love in my heart when others wrong me if I can keep in focus the fact that they're hurting themselves far more, and even if they're hurting me in pursuit of self-pleasure, it's all due to their blindness and self-delusion, and they have no concept of the happiness and joy that I know from the Lord every day. If someone was attacking me with a knife, and for every papercut they managed to inflict on me, they left themselves with a huge gash, it would be hard for me to dwell on my papercut.
And another thing that helps me, in the same situation with people wronging me, is Matthew 5:11-12: "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." There is great, great comfort in the fact that God is fair, and our troubles here will be far outweighed by rewards in heaven! And, too, that wicked deeds against us will get their comeuppance.
Lastly... the most helpful joy-providing thing I've found is reading. I imagine this varies greatly from person to person, but for me, at least, reading Scripture with an eye to making my joy more full, or reading solid devotional books (snippets--a page a day, something small enough to focus on) really changes my outlook on the day. I'm not as good at this as I should be, especially since Eliana got here! But truly there is nothing sweeter than the Word, and even as that sounds like a pat answer, it's true! I like reading right before I have a long amount of brainless activity (exercise, driving, cleaning, etc.) when I can think on it for a long time and let it percolate in my mind so that when I move on to brain-ful activities, my mental frame has been firmly cemented for the day to joy in Christ.
I hope something among all these tangled words is encouraging. It's been a long time since I've written anything substantive because my brain has been rather fried on pregnancy hormones. ;-) Anyway, thanks for sending me to this, and for the challenge you've given me--the bit about being infinitely more joy-filled from Christ than from one's husband was really a solemn reminder. It's so easy to focus on what's right in front of my face instead of on God. :-\
Praying for and with you!
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