8/2/2020 - You Can Be Happy! - Psalms 1

Over the past four months, the entire world has experienced a happiness drain. One headline after another steals our joy. Many wonder if it's even possible to find lasting happiness anymore. And what does the Bible have to say about this? It says a lot. Jesus gives an entire sermon about being happy. It's called the "Sermon on the Mount." You know the one that says,"Blessed are the..." over and over. Did you know the word for blessed literally means happy? So often we focus on Christian holiness and we forget that when we live lives of obedience and service and when we live out the uniqueness of who God has made us to be…there is joy. There is happiness.   We see this again in the very first word of the very first Psalm. It too begins with the word "blessed" and in the Hebrew language, this word also means happy. Although the Psalmist uses the word happy, the things he tells us will make us happy are not traditionally thought of as happy things. In fact, there is a contradiction. Many of the things we think bring us happiness actually rob us of holiness. This is important to recognize because when we are holy we will be truly happy. Isn't that the way of the cross…and the way of Jesus…yes, and I think that is the key to understanding happiness as a Christian.