Always happy? Really? Many would say  “No way! Not possible!” Thank God we serve a God of the impossible. Alllllll things are possible to those who believe….. 

 

Check this out….. 

 

“Be happy [in your faith] and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually (always); Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly]; Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:16-18‬ ‭AMP‬‬

http://bible.com/8/1th.5.16-18.amp

 

1-  Be happy in your faith. It’s one thing to be in faith about your situation as grim as it may look and to stay in faith no matter what. But then another thing to be happy in your faith no matter what. We are commanded here in scripture to be happy in our faith. Yikes, that seems to be a tall order depending on your situation doesn’t it?! 

“Yea, and you don’t know what I’m believing for. It’s not a happy situation.” you might say. Well according to this verse you have hope that you can be happy in your faith. If not, God wouldn’t have told us to be! We are told here to be happy and glad hearted always so He must have known we were going to think there were exemptions to this rule. So once again we have permission from God to be happy ALWAYS! And hey, if you are facing a physical battle in your body or mind, that’s the perfect time to be happy always. A merry heart does good like a medicine. God’s Word is the answer to our every situation. Easy always to apply? Heck no! It’s a fight of faith. But I guess now from this study we know it can be a happy fight of faith. The only fight to me that would be happy would be the one I win. Praise God we already read the end of The Book and WE WIN! Either way the cookie crumbles we win. I just love God and His goodness toward us. In the face of your situation, stare it right between the eyes and determine to fight your fight continually happy ANYWAY!

2- The very next two verses I believe are the “HOW” to verse 16.

****Pray continually. You want to be happy always? Pray always! If I were saying to you, ” Be happy. Go have some “you time”. Find a hobby. Get some rest. Go get a massage. Have some down time with your family.” I would be telling you that in my opinion those are the “How to’s” of being happy. Of course all of those are good ideas but they will never substitute what this passage says to do in order to be happy always. We are told here to be happy always and to do so, we will need to pray always and preserveringly. Uh oh, that must mean we are going to have reason to persevere. That must mean it won’t always be easy to pray. But guess what? We are suppose to still pray…then too…that is if we want to be happy always.

 

****The second thing we are to always do if we want to be happy always is in verse 18 – Be thankful always NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES MAY BE. What?! This is such a key to happiness. You know why? It lifts our eyes above the circumstance and gets us looking back up to Him where our help comes from. It builds our faith to think about other things that are positive and things we can be thankful for…even helps us pick out parts of the horrible we may be facing that we can be thankful for. If you look, there is always a silver lining. Just stare at that lining and choose to be thankful for that as you pray perserveringly. When you do, you may be accused like I have been of being uncaring or on drugs. {Seriously?!😂 Yep, true story. Would hurt my feelings if it weren’t so rediculous.} But that’s not it at all. My closest friends will tell you I have the biggest heart of most anyone they know and I am certainly not on any drugs except as my husband calls it gos-pills (the gospel) and I do take a multi vitamin, C, fish oil, calcium, and estrodiol. TMI but just making the point and setting the record straight. LOL 

This happiness you see on my face is genuine. Yours can be too. I have had an encounter with a happy Jesus and he took my sack cloth and ashes and He has turned my mourning into dancing and laughter. My eyes are fixed so solidly on Him and yours can be too.  

So you wanta be happy ALWAYS? Me too. Let’s commit to do this together~ 

Pray always

Be thankful always

Before long, we can together achieve  

HAPPY ALWAYS as scripture commands us to be.  

Happy Monday Y’all! 😍