12-9-2015

        Good Morning All!!     

         Psalm 97:12; “Find joy in the Lord, you righteous people. Give thanks to him as you remember how holy he is.”

    Many are shopping fast and furiously.  People are in the stores, people are online.  Delivery trucks are going east and west, north and south.  Soon all those packages will appear under a tree, or be loaded up and hauled to grandmother’s house.  There and along the way, they may be pinched, shook, hefted and guessed about.  Yet, sooner than we think, it will be time to open and celebrate the gifts and the giving.

    Yet how often do we truly find happiness in the gifts?  We find it in each other, in the family and friends who are there and gave us the gifts, but do things truly make us happy?  As we look at the world, we wonder.  It seems like the person with a two stall garage wants a three stall garage.  The person with a ten year old car wants a two year old car and the person with a two year old car wants a new one.  The house that we thought was perfect soon is too small or in the wrong location.  People want to change their looks but even after wards are usually unhappy about the change.  It never makes us happy.  We see this all the time.

    Couples get married, full of dreams and many times are divorced a few years later because they just weren’t happy anymore.  Millionaires want to be billionaires and we all want something bigger, better and newer.  We want a new house, new appliances, new clothes, new hairstyle, new job, or new anything to make us happy.  Many times, in just a few months, we are as happy as we wanted to be and we wonder why.  There are a couple of reasons that the Bible point out to us that may help us understand.

    First, what we seek to make us happy may in fact be against God’s will.  Our desires may be clouded by our sinful nature and while we think this is what we want; it does not make us happy because it harms our relationship with God.  This is one possible reason.  A second is that nothing here on earth will ever really make us happy.  The Apostle Paul tells us that our citizenship is in heaven.  We are also told to focus on things above.  This tells us that we will never be truly happy here on earth with earthly things.  Our happiness, our joy is truly found only in Jesus.  Our true joy here on earth is dependent upon our relationship with God and the way we express that relationship here on earth.  It will show up when we express the love that God bestows on us.  It will show up when we return to our original purpose, to care for creation (and that includes people), and to worship and praise God.

    Our greatest joy is found when we express God’s grace to those around us.  Our greatest joy is found when we worship God in all that we do for all that he does.  Our greatest joy is found when we trust in God’s mercy and are content with all that he gives us.

Father of mercy; guide us to see that our happiness, our joy is found only in you.  Lead us to remember your grace in all that we do.  Be with those who are struggling to find joy in this world.  Send your Spirit to comfort them.  In the precious name of Jesus e pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret